nute particulars, all of which taken together can apply to him only, of all men that ever lived; and it is to be noted, that to those who in different ages have assumed the character of the Messiah, in order to impose on the Jews, not one of all those prophe- | cies will in any measure apply. | which the Messiah was to come; for that it is he that is meant by Shiloh, (Gen. xlix.) is admitted by Jews as well as Christians: that by the continuance of the sceptre, or civil rule, in the tribe of Judah, to this given time, and its utter departure since, a complete proof is afforded of the accomAnd as the circumstances here re-plishment of the prediction, is what I lated, were pointed out to characterize mean to shew. the person of the Messiah when he should appear, so the time of that appearance was not left unnoted. It has been already said, that it was to be while the second temple was standing; Daniel prophesies that it should take place under the fourth great monarchy, of which the prophet himself lived under the first: both these prophecies must for ever fail of their accomplishment, if the Messiah be yet to come. But the famous prophecy of the seventy weeks, contained in the ninth chapter of Daniel, is particularly to our present purpose. It will be acknowledged that the word hebdomada, signifying a week or seven, is sometimes taken for a week of days, as when Daniel says that he mourned three weeks of days; but at other times it means a space of seven years, which is called hebdomada annorum, a week of years; as in Levit. xxv. 8. where it is said seven weeks of years, making forty-nine years; and that this kind of week is meant in this place, appears, not only by the admission of the Jews, but also by the consideration that the second temple, and Jerusalem itself, were in building a considerable time longer than Daniel would otherwise assign for the appearance of the Anointed One. These seventy times seven years, or four hundred and ninety years, within which the Messiah was to be slain, being reckoned from the first year of Darius, when the decree came forth, will extend to the eighteenth of Tiberius Cæsar, the year in which Christ died-allowing him to have been crucified, according to prophecy, in the middle of that week. Omitting that week, in the middle of which he was to be cut off, we shall be brought to the commencement of the public existence of the Messiah, when in his thirtieth year he was set apart to his ministerial office. There is another prophecy, uttered by Jacob when about to die, that has a reference also to the exact time at | Hircanus, king of Judea, married his daughter Mariamne to Herod; and being afterwards taken in battle by the Parthians, an opportunity was afforded to Herod to procure to himself the kingdom; which he effected through the interest of the Romans, and by taking away the lives of those who had a better right to it than himself. This was the beginning of the departure, which was completed when the Romans afterwards made war on the Jewish nation, and took away this and their place. Judea was trodden down of the Gentiles, and in no corner of the earth do we find the Jews living in any state, except that of common citizens, subject to the laws and government of a foreign jurisdiction. And at the time when this great event occurred, of the destruction of the Jewish political fabric, we may well suppose that all the civil records of the nation, and the pedigree of all the great families, were destroyed also; which marks the accomplishment of another prophecy given to the Jews, to enable them to recognize the Messiah when he should come. The Almighty promised to his servant David to establish his throne over Israel, and to build up his seat to all generations; and as in other places it was said that the Messiah should reign for ever over the people, the conclusion followed, that this expected personage, and the seed of David that was to be established on the throne for ever, were the same. In order to evade the force of this, the modern Jews have referred the promise to Solomon, to whom it is in no way applicable; for he died in the ordinary course of nature, and therefore it is as applicable to any other of the kings of Judah as to him, even to the very worst of them; and that it was regarded anciently in the same manner as we are now considering it, appears from the words of the prophet Jeremiah, who, though he lived so long after Solomon, prophesies of the advent of this expected king as still future, (xxiii. 5, &c.)—Ezekiel also, who wrote during the Babylonish captivity, still speaks of his coming in the character of the Jewish king; although it is clear that from the restoration of the people, to the final destruction of their government by Titus, no one of the family of David can be mentioned as fulfilling this prophecy, unless it be the Lord Jesus. The destruction of the public registers soon after the birth of our Lord, when before this they had been so providentially preserved, seems evidently to point out to us, that the object for which they had been preserved was accomplished, and that henceforward they might be considered as useless. The various circumstances which were prophesied of the Messiah, and their agreeing in the person of Jesus alone, would lead us into too long a disqui- | sition; but it is proper to notice one objection of the Jews, as it in fact imbodies all they have to say in justification of their rejection of him as their Anointed Prince. They allege that the Messiah must needs be a terrestrial king, reigning in Judea, and subduing by his power, all the nations beneath the sceptre of the kingdom of Israel; and that whatever pretender to the office should fail in this, thereby proves himself an impostor. Whether ultimately the kingdom shall be restored to Israel, under the immediate dominion of Jesus, is not the object of our present inquiry. Our Lord seems to intimate so much, and many prophecies bearing on this point, remain to be fulfilled: but that this was not what the Jews were primarily taught to expect, as the object of the Messiah's coming, is clear from the prophetic passages in which these things are mentioned. It could be to little purpose to the comfort of Adam to inform him, that one small branch of his family should lord it over the others, under a glorious and mighty conqueror; though regarded as a deliverer from sin, which he had just begun to feel the consequence of, the promise was of the utmost importance to him. His being poor in the world, forsaken, rejected of the Jewish chiefs, and finally being put to death, are inconsistent with the idea of eternal and glorious worldly government; his being a light to lighten the Gentiles, all of whom are to be blessed in him, will not agree with his being their conqueror by worldly power; and their bowing to his dominion, and calling him blessed, is very possible, even according to what we see at present, in reference to the Christian ideas regarding him. Finally, we would ask, what cause can be given for the dispersion of the Jews through so many nations, for so many ages? In ancient times, when guilty of the odious sin of idolatry, they were banished from their own land only for the space of seventy years, during all which they were favoured with the preaching of the prophets. Before the destruction of Jerusalem, so far from being idolaters, they were zealous for the law; and so they have continued to the present times. What other sins then, worthy of more severe and permanent rejection, have they been guilty of, that they should continue to be a scorn and reproach among the people? Their own hearts can testify to none, except it be the rejection of the Lord of life and glory. "His blood be upon us, and upon our children," spoken in the ears of Jehovah Sabaoth, was the awful sentence that consigned them to their long protracted wanderings; from which they will not return until they have acknowledged Him. The Lord hasten it in his time! It follows, then, if the law of Moses was from God, as a Jew will not deny; and if God by the same Moses promised to raise up another prophet, to whom, in preference to Moses, they should hearken, which promise was changed to a command on the Mount of Transfiguration,—it is our duty to receive the revelation given by this prophet, who is no other than the Son himself, as that only one wherewith God can be well pleased. CHAPTER THIRD. The subject continued against Infidels. That the gods of the nations were demons, we have the testimony of an apostle; and that these demons were suffered to exert an influence on the bodies and minds of their worshippers, appears not only from the accounts given us by those whom Christians believed to be inspired writers, but also from the works of Heathens themselves. Porphyry and Eno maus have written on the subject of the world; for this Emperor becoming the Heathen oracles ; the former pro- aged, took a journey to Delphos, in fesses to have gathered truly, without order that he might be informed who addition or detraction, the oracles should reign after him, and how affairs that were most famous before his should be conducted after his decease. time, with their false and uncertain Apollo for a great while would return events; in considering of which, he no answer, although Augustus had sets down his own judgment of their been very liberal in his offerings; but power in prediction, thus : “The gods | at last, as if compelled to utterance, foretel some natural things to come, Apollo replied: "An Hebrew child because they observe the order of their that ruleth over the blessed gods, comnatural causes; but in those which mandeth me to leave this habitation, are contingent, or depend on man's and immediately to go to hell. But will, they have only conjectures, in yet do thou depart in silence from our which, by their subtilty and celerity, altars.” And even before this, the they prevent us; but yet they are declension of the Heathen oracles was often false, and deceive us in both publicly taken notice of by Cicero, kinds, because of the mutability of (Cicero de Divin. 2.) and therefore natural things, and of the will of could not proceed from the decline of man." If we give credit to ancient superstition, and the detection of imhistory on this subject, we cannot posture, as some have supposed; help believing that some things were though even if it had, it would be a told by the ancient oracles, that were proof of the good which Christianity beyond the ordinary wit of man; but has done in the world; but oracles it is singular that the oracles which are recorded to have been silenced were of this nature referred to secret about the time of the advent of Christ, events that were passed, or were then before the light from heaven which he in action; and that such things were brought, had illuminated the world ; capable of being revealed by demons, and as this was so conspicuous as to we may readily believe, both from the excite the notice of Pagans, it is circumstantial accounts of ancient clear, both that oracles had once been historians, and from St. Luke's narra- more flourishing, and also that some tive in the Acts of the Apostles, of supernatural restraint had been thrown the girl who was possessed of a spirit over them. And to illustrate this, it of Python, and by its assistance re- is reported, (Polyd. lib. 5. cap. 8.) vealed the nature of the Apostle's that when Jesus was in Egypt, in his mission. infancy, all the idolatrous images of We need not be surprised at finding the city where he was, fell down of these spirits declaring the truth of their own accord. Other proofs of the God: "We know thee who thou art," divine mission of Jesus may be drawn said one of them-" the Holy One of from the miracles which he was able God; but lest the authority of the |to perform. We observe of the porwriter who reported this should be tents recorded in ancient Heathen questioned by those with whom we writers, (men of the first-rate intellect, have to do, let us see the authority of and endowed with all the talents which an Heathen priest (Suidas in Thulis learning could bestow or strengthen,) et Porphyr. et Plut. de Oraculis) that modern discoveries in science who demanded of Apollo concerning have enabled us to explain them, or God and the true religion: to whom to discover their fallacy; but though he answered, "O thou unhappy the wonders related of Jesus are repriest, why dost thou ask me of God,corded by unlearned men, subjected that is the father of all things, and of to the same tests, they still continue to this most renowned king's dear and evince the power of him who wrought only Son, and of the Spirit that con-them, and the wisdom that selected taineth all? &c. Alas, that Spirit will compel me shortly to leave this habitation and place of oracles." Another oracle to the same purpose was delivered to Augustus Cæsar, (Saidas in Vita Augusti, Niceph. lib. 2, hist. cap. 17,) about the time that Jesus Christ was about to appear in 66 such objects to work upon. The miracles are too well proved to be now questioned; the proof of them may be rested on the authority of his enemies, who did not deny them when they were wrought; and all the circumstances were immediately spread abroad, so that no new embellishments could have been added to them to | regard to this world, was indeed most make them more acceptable to the miserable. people and more especially it is important to remember, that many of the converts to Christianity were made partakers of the same power of working miracles; and that one at least, and perhaps more, of those so endued, fell off from the religion they had embraced; in which case the deception must have been discovered, if any had existed. The prophecies of Jesus are also evidences of his truth. The destruction of Jerusalem, the dispersion of the Jews, their preservation as a distinct people until their future restoration to Judea, and to the privileges of the favoured people of God-the treatment his followers should meet with in the world, solely on account of his name, different from what any people had ever met with in the world before, on a similar account; their preservation amidst their trials; and their final success in establishing the gospel in the world, are too extraordinary to be imputed to his merely human knowledge, and too well established as facts to be doubted; for they are in truth accomplishing even in our day. It The moral character of Jesus Christ and his Apostles has never been questioned, and therefore needs not be defended. But this is small praise. The sanctity manifested by them in all their deportment, was lively and active; and must be admitted to be of such a kind, as would belong to any messenger, whom God would select for such a divine mission. And the doctrine corresponded thereto. overthrows the kingdom of the wicked one, wherever it is preached; it restrains, and finally eradicates the evil propensities of men; and teaches them to oppose those feelings, on which, in a natural state, they are most inclined to set a value; it is clear, therefore, that in its original formation it was not intended to derive support from the flattery it offered to human passions. And that it was equally ill fitted to minister to the grandeur, riches, or pleasure, of those who were its first supporters, appears both from its own essential doctrines, which they could not trespass without being openly convicted before the world, and also from the melancholy fate of these men, which, in But whilst the doctrines of the gospel are opposed to worldly mindedness of all sorts, they are well fitted to the actual state of human kind. No writings so clearly describe the nature of God; in this respect the knowledge of the wisest Heathens confessedly falls short of that of the Galilean fishermen ;-none so philosophically describe the nature of man,—what he is, and what he may be; in this the gospel is the best treatise on metaphysics in the world;-none so clearly describe the nature of the spiritual world, in which we are indeed much in the dark; and yet when the revealed account is examined by the light of reason, it appears to be what reason would not have discovered, but when discovered, it appears exactly such as reason approves. The internal nature of Christianity has always appeared the most feelingly convincing proof of its divinity; and it is hoped, as the subject involves everlasting consequences, that no one will reject it, until, with calm attention, he has directed his mind particularly to the subject in this important point of view. (To be concluded in our next. ) OBSERVATIONS ON FAIRY RINGS OR CIRCLES. MR. EDITOR. SIR,-I beg to offer for insertion in your miscellany, an extract from Dr. Plot's History of Staffordshire, a work much thought of in that county. Dr. Plot was a remarkable compound of learning, indefatigable research, superstition, and credulity. The two former make his work valuable, and the more so from its having acquired the stamp of antiquity; the two latter may serve to amuse. Though we appear to have done with witches, we cannot in vulgar opinion have done with fairies, not having done with fairy rings, for I can see one from the place where I now sit; and there are a number on the other side of the house;-I am become cautious of ridiculing the notion of these appearances in old pasture lands being caused by the dancing of fairies, for I have seen some of my neighbours look very grave upon my attempting to do this; and I would rather be thought a credulous hind in the vale of Trent, than a Carlile in Fleet-street; and a belief in the nocturnal revels of these tiny spirits may be at least a harmless superstition. The day has been, when many phenomena which could not be satisfactorily explained from natural causes, were asserted by the nurse and the priest to be supernatural; and these, as pious frauds, were expected to aid the impressions of true religion. This day is over in our land, and we are in more danger of believing too little than too much. The phenomenon of what are called fairy rings, is, as I think, of easy solution; they are no doubt occasioned by a little brown fungus, of the mushroom tribe, which grows in knots or clusters, and has the property of destroying or greatly injuring the vegetative powers of the soil where it springs up, so that at one season of the year the place shall be quite brown, when the other parts of the field are green, and at another it shall be a dead heavy green, quite distinguishable from the other parts. This would not seem to merit particular notice, were it not that some of them are large circles with rims from one to three feet broad; but if the first cluster is of a round form, which we may suppose the most common, the increase would naturally take the circular figure. I observe in lands which are partially grown with rushes, that the tufts are generally round, from their increasing equally on all sides from the centre: but as the fungus I have mentioned can only vegetate on one spot for a given time, the centre of the first cluster dies, while the spawn or roots are continually increasing outwardly, till a well-defined rim is formed; as much of the inner edge dying annually, the soil being exhausted, as the increase into a fresh soil on the outer edge so that we may judge of the length of time the land has been in grass, by the diameter of the circles, they being in general of the same size in the same field; and it may be presumed, that the fungus had its commencement soon after the land was laid down for grass. I must not forget to mention, that on the outer edge of the rim, and where the soil is the strongest, a few mushrooms will frequently spring up of the eatable kind; these, if large, are said to be the seats or tables of the fairy queen, who presides at these assemblies. THOS. BAKEWELL. Spring-Vale, near Stone, Sept. 5, 1822. Extract, &c.-" And here perchance by the way it may be no great digression to inquire into the nature and efficient cause of those things we find in the grass, which they commonly call fairy circles: whether they are caused by lightning, or are indeed the rendezvouses of witches, or the dancing-places of those little pigmy spirits they call elves or fairies?—and the rather, because, 1st, it is a question, perhaps by reason of the difficulty, scarce yet attempted; and 2dly, because I have met with the largest of their kind that perchance were ever heard of in this county; one of them shewed me in the grounds between Handsworth Church and the Heath, being nearly forty yards diameter; and I was told of another by that ingenious gentleman (one of the most cordial encouragers of this work) the Worshipful Sir Henry Gough, Knight, that there was one in his grounds near Pury Hall, but a few years back (now indeed ploughed up) of a much larger size, he believed nearly fifty, whereas there are some of them not above two yards diameter; which, perhaps, may be nearly the two extremes of their magnitude. "Nor is there a difference only in the exient of their diameters; they varying also in divers other respects, though not proportionably so much; for I have always observed, that the rims of these circles, from the least to the biggest, are seldom narrower than a foot, or much broader than a yard; some as bare as a path-way in many parts of them, others of a russet singed colour, both of these having a greener grass in the middle, and a third sort of a dark fresh green, the grass within being of a browner colour. Those of the first kind are seldom less than five or six yards in diameter, and the other two of various magnitudes; and all these again as well imperfect, as perfect; some of them obtaining three parts of a circle, others being semicircular; some of them quadrants, and others not above sextants, of their respective circles. "Now that wizards and witches |