40 years of Samuel, the first of the prophets.

450 of kings, beginning with David.

490 70X7 years.

==

70 years of captivity, during which the land kept her sabbaths. 490 intimated to Daniel as the time which was to elapse before the coming of Messiah the prince.

Our readers will, we think, admit that the numbers now stated are sufficiently remarkable, if they contain a correct computation of the dates. There is, however, much difference of opinion as to the duration of the Jewish monarchy. The 450 years assigned to it by Mr Browne agree with the dates given by Clinton in his great work, for he assigns the accession of David to the year B.C. 1056, and the captivity of Jehoiakim to the year B.c. 606; the interval between these is exactly 450 years. But the whole period has been carefully investigated by our author, and the results are contained in the volume before us. There is, moreover, an interval unaccounted for in the parallelism stated above, between the termination of the captivity in B.C. 536, and the commencement of the 490 years, or 70 weeks of Daniel's prophecy in B.c. 459, as these dates are fixed by our author. This, we think, is in part attributable to the error of the common arrangement of the times of the captivity which Mr Browne has followed. Our space will not permit us to enter upon any investigation of these matters, but we have thought it our duty to note on our pages the conclusion to which he has arrived, that the attention of others may be drawn to a subject which will repay investigation: for if the parallelism among these great epochs be satisfactorily established, it is hardly possible to conceive a more convincing proof of the continual exercise of an overruling Providence in the history of the world.

For the fact presented to us is not merely that that history is divided into certain similar and recurring periods, but, what is far more remarkable, that these periods have a definite moral relation to one another. Thus leaving out of view the intermediate period of the 70 years of captivity, we have three historical periods of 490 years, each of which may be divided into two sections of 40 and 450 respectively. The three periods of 40 years are each of them times of probation; the first, the wandering in the wilderness, the second, the rule of Samuel following upon the national revival at Mizpeh, and the third, the season during which, after the return from Babylon, the voice of prophecy, which ceased with Malachi, was still heard in the

church. Each is succeeded by a period of 450 years of a more mixed character, and the whole 490 years in each case close with a visitation of judgment-the desolation of Shiloh in the first instance, of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans in the second, and by the Romans in the third. This at least would be the result upon the scheme of the last period, which we would prefer, but according to Mr Browne it closed with the crucifixion, and another 40 years of trial was given to Jerusalem. As we have not fixed the date of commencement of this last period of 70 weeks of years, we shall confine our remarks to a comparison between the two former periods. Here then we have a correspondence between Moses and Samuel, each of them appearing as the deliverer of the people, and leading them for 40 years, which period was in either case one during which God had partially withdrawn himself from his people. In the first period, this was marked by the want of circumcision, the seal of the national covenant, which was not observed from the time of their leaving Egypt till their entrance into Canaan. In the second, God's partial withdrawal was shown in the removal of the ark from Shiloh, and its sojourning in Kirjath-jearim, while the other cities of Israel refused to welcome it. In each period Israel provoked God, first, by rejecting Moses, and worshipping the golden calf; and again, by rejecting Samuel, and insisting on having a king. Then the rest into which they were introduced by Joshua answers to the rest given by David, the covenant of circumcision being renewed in the one case, and a habitation provided for the ark in the other. This gives significance to the words of David, spoken at this very time. To-day if ye will hear his voice harden not your hearts, as in the day of provocation in the wilderness. . . . . Forty years long was I grieved with this generation." And perhaps the true key is furnished by this remarkable parallel to the Apostle's comment on this passage, where he brings together the rest given by Joshua and that promised by David, and argues, "There remaineth therefore a rest unto the people of God." Nor are there wanting allusions in the word of God to the parallel character of these two dispensations, as when the prophet threatens that God would do to Jerusalem as he had done to Shiloh, because that generation were refusing to hearken to the prophets, even as their fathers had rejected his laws: (Jer. vii. 12; xxvi. 6.) and still more particularly when the same prophet says, in the name of the Almighty, "Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be towards this people," (Jer. xv. 1.)

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We have thought it a more satisfactory manner of dealing with this work, to select one portion of history and examine it

in detail, than to attempt any comprehensive view of the system of the author. But there are other matters contained in this volume of which we must give a passing notice. There is a second part of the work entitled the "Economy of Times and Seasons," which extends to about 100 pages, and is intended to bring to light a number of coincidences depending on the author's system of chronology. Could we in every point receive the system, these coincidences would indeed be worthy of minute investigation; but as we are constrained to differ from the author in more than one point in his arrangement of dates, we cannot of course feel the same interest in parallelisms drawn from data, of the incorrectness of which we are satisfied. It were a very dangerous course to attempt to fix the cardinal points of a scheme of chronology from analogies supposed to subsist between the lengths of the several epochs of which the scheme is composed. Such analogies may subsist, but they must not be presumed before

hand.

The Appendix consists of a very excellent and useful compendium of the mathematical and technical elements requisite for the study of Scriptural chronology, and of four other supplementary treatises, one of which is an examination of the scheme of Scripture chronology, constructed by Mr Greswell in his dissertations on the Harmony of the Gospels. Mr Browne has succeeded in proving that a strange and unaccountable error in the very principles of calculating time runs through the voluminous work of that author. The connection between chronology and prophecy is too intimate to permit of the one being treated exclusively of the other, and yet we wish that Mr Browne had confined himself to the simple notice of such portions of the prophetic word as lay directly in his track. His concluding treatise, "On the contents of Prophecy," while it contains many excellent things, seems to have been put together with far too little consideration. We should have been tempted to expose at some length the inconsistency of his interpretation of the four empires of Daniel, and of his views on the year-day theory, were it not that this has already been done as fully as is at all necessary in the Appendix to Birks's" Four Prophetic Empires."

ART. III.-The Life and Times of Girolamo Savonarola: illustrating the progress of the Reformation in Italy, during the Fif teenth Century. London: Whittaker & Co. 1843.

THERE were two lines of historians who could not speak well of the subject of this memoir-the interested advocates of the court and Church of Rome, and the warm admirers of the House of Medici. The study of the Holy Scriptures from early life had emancipated Savonarola from all reverence for the chicane, ambition, and tyranny of the Papal dominion, though he never escaped from its superstitions. This emancipation was the natural forerunner of another: liberty of conscience leads of necessity to a comprehension of civil liberty. The reformer within the Church, after becoming a person of influence and consideration in his position as Prior of San Marco, at Florence, soon perceived the injury suffered by that city, from the usurpation of the family of Medici. He vigorously resisted their attempts to establish their dominion, and succeeded in restoring the republican form of government which Lorenzo di Medici had well-nigh succeeded in turning into a monarchy, for the gratification of his own ambition.

The Florentine reformer has been not unnaturally compared to Luther. They each had discovered the foundation of their principles in the Divine word,—each had pursued his study alone, and contrary to the practice and advice of the order of monks to which he belonged,-each, in coming forth to proclaim truth, had to contend against selfish cupidity, long indulged indolence and ignorance, and all the corrupt and base practices which the evil heart can revel in, when it has alike dismissed the fear of God, and become elevated to a position beyond the fear of man. So far the Reformers resemble each other. But there the resemblance stops. Savonarola, after obtaining some light as to the corruption of morals, rushed on to work a reform within the Church. He did not dwell much on perverted doctrines, probably he did not discern their perversion; but he saw clearly that the lives of the clergy were an entire contradiction, both to the life and precepts of the Lord Jesus Christ, and Him he had learned, as a soul convinced that he was perishing, to love and honour as his Redeemer. He hoped to realize his beau ideal of excellence in his own community, and then expected that all men would be so enamoured of the pattern, that they would imitate it. He believed justly that the church does not consist either of stone edifices, or of bands of men congregated in universities, and of those whom they ordain and send forth to rule and guide an ignorant multitude; but he believed that the church of Christ is

a spiritual edifice, consisting of all souls that are united to Christ by faith, and walk in his love. He therefore expanded his views, and forming in his mind the scheme of a Theocracy, he used the power of his intrepid energy and burning eloquence to realize his idea in the Florentine republic. His knowledge of the ways and the affairs of men must have been limited; his experience of the dangers and difficulties to be encountered among ambitious and intriguing priests must have been very scanty. He was strongly possessed, however, by one knowledge, that God is Lord of all, and ought to be recognised in all the affairs of men. Fraught with this opinion, and seeing that a state governed by such laws as its influence would dictate, must be a Christian state, acting in close and unvarying unison with the church of Christ, he cast himself, with all his zeal, into the centre of the politics of the republic. Few men have had so fair an opportunity of realizing the scheme of identifying the church with the state, as was af forded to the Reformer by his own mighty influence, conjoined with the struggle of the time. In casting off the Medician usurpation, the people of Florence seemed at an open place in their history, and might have adopted the plan so boldly suggested to them. But the leaders in Florentine politics were not all Christians. Though thirty years after his death, the opinions of Savonarola held still such sway over the people, that the repetition of one of his orations to the assembled magistracy induced them to adopt his counsel, that henceforth Jesus Christ should be acknowledged king of Florence, and inscriptions recording the fact appeared in public places, and books were prepared for the register of the names of those who consented to the regulation; yet nothing more came of it than when the living Savonarola prooounced his burning rebukes and unacceptable opinions stead fastly and fearlessly, with the certainty of martyrdom as his reward.

The

Had he not fallen in such times as those of the abominations which were rampant in the person and priesthood of Pope Alexander VI., he might never have solved for himself the startling problem, how far it is lawful to resist those who abuse sovereign authority, with which they have been legally invested. casuistry of Rome, with which all her sons disciplined in monasteries must be more or less tainted, renders it very difficult for a fair and honest, and even a courageous mind, to take a simple view of any subject that touches the usurped dominion of the papacy. Admit their assumed opinion, that a thing may be theologically true which is philosophically false, and you have a fitting basis on which to rear a whole system of deceit. Obedience to man-unhesitating, unconscientious, irresponsible obedience, cannot co-exist with a true view of the law of God, and the