ufing the verb in what Mr. Harris calls the aorift of the prefent, or in what is, in ordinary grammars, called the prefent tense. This being the cafe, when our bleffed Lord faid-Пgis 'AСgxàμ yevéoláì, yw Before Abraham was born, I am it follows that, if no fpecific predication be mentioned in the context, he meant to fay not only that he existed before Abraham was born, but that he exifted then, exifts now, and fhall exift for ever, by neceffity, as God the Father exifts, or as the three angles of a plane triangle have always been, now are, and always thall be equal to two right angles. The prefent author feems to think, that the verb u must here be underflood in a paft fenfe, because the words," Before Abraham was, I am," Have, he fays, "no meaning unless the event be future." But this is a mere begging of the question, and a begging of it in oppofition to the fundamental principles of grammar. The prefent tenfe is no otherwife related to the future than to the past; nor does a verb in that tenfe denote, by itself, any particular period of time, which can be determined only by the context. By the Arians, indeed, who, though they admit the pre-existence of the Aoyos, yet believe that exiftence not to be neceffary, but contingent, like any other matter of fact, the verb muft, we think, be underflood in a paft fenfe, though, we imagine, it would be difficult for them to produce an inftance in which it is certainly used in the only fenfe which would ferve their purpofe. We agree on this point with two unitarian critics, quoted by our author, that it is more eafy to affert than to prove, that you may ever be trans lated I was; and that u or fum, can ever be understood as implying past time, that time muft likewife include the prefent, and, as it appears to us, the future. In the Vulgate tranflation of the Old Teftament, the words to which our Lord's expreffion was certainly understood by the Jews to refer are, Ego fum qui fum.—Qui eft mifit me ad vos; and that expreflion itself is, in the fame tranflation, not ego fui, or ego eram, or ego ero, but ego fum, implying prefent, paft, and permanent exiftence. This is the true import of the. prefent tenfe, which is an aorift in all languages, and is therefore the only fenfe which can be admitted here. But, fays this author, it does not appear that real existence is the predication neceffary to complete the fenfe of yw . Our Lord's words, he thinks, may be thus paraphrased. "Before Abraham was born, I was be: i. e, the Chrift, *This change of the tenfe is without all authority, and cannot be admitted. q. d. be. q. d. before that, eminent patriarch was brought into being, my, existence and appearance, under the character of the Meffiah, at this period, and in these circumstances, was fo completely arranged, and fo irrevocably fixed in the immutable counsels and purposes of God, that in this fenfe I may be faid even then to have exifted." P. 85. This, continues our author, is the interpretation propofed by the Unitarians, which Dr. Clarke called " languid and unnatural;" which Dr. Harwood styled " forced and futile, inapt and chimerical ;" and at which Dr. Price "wondered." Thefe expreffions, and this wonder, are just what might have been expected from fuch men as Clarke, Harwood, and Price; for they were, at least two of them profound philofophers, as well as acute grammarians, and incapable of fuppofing that our Lord ever trifled with his audience. That this would have been egregious trifling, Mr. Belsham himfelf, on a little cool reflection, muft, we think, acknowledge; for being a Neceffarian, he must be aware, that if this be the fenfe of our Saviour's words, he might, in a fimilar fenfe, fay of himself, "Before Abraham was born, I am!" On the scheme of neceffity, not only his exiftence, but like-wife all his exploits, have, from eternity, been irrevocably fixed in the immutable counfels and purposes of God; but when the common objection of novelty is urged against the unitarian notion of the perfon of Chrift, would he, inftead. of fearching with Dr. Prieftley, into the opinions of the Ebionites and Nazareens, think it fufficient to reply,—“ Before Abraham was born, I was a Unitarian;" for it was then irrevocably fixed in the immutable counfels and purposes of God, that I fhould publish a book against the Divinity of Chrift, in the beginning of the nineteenth century of the Chriftian æra?" We agree with the author, that in all fuch predications as that of our Lord, the context muft determine the ellipfis, or, as we fhould fay, the predicate, when the predicate is not expreffed; and in the prefent inftance it appears to us felf-evident, that the context determines it to be fomething which implies actual existence, whether % av or dulos. Our Lord's words are a reply to the Jews, who had juft afked, how he not being fifty years old, could have feen Abraham. The queftion was natural, and furely not unreasonable; and to fuch a queftion, it is conceiv able,, that any infpired teacher, or indeed any fenfible man," would have replied to thofe whom he was commiffioned to inftruct, that he had feen Abraham; because before that eminent patriarch was born, it had been determined in the counfels counfels of God, that he fhould appear, near 2000 years after his death, in the character of the Meffiah. But, fays Mr. Belfham, it may be alledged against the Trinitarian interpretation of this verfe, that "It is not probable that our Lord would have been so very open and explicit upon this high and mysterious fubject to his enemies, when he was fo referved to his friends, and alfo not appear to have hinted it even to his difciples; that if he had intended in this inftance to announce his own pre-existence fo very explicitly as many believe, he would have taught this extraor dinary doctrine more frequently, in a greater variety of phrafe, and would have laid greater ftrefs upon it, and finally, that this fact, fo folemnly declared, would have been more attended to, and would have made a more permanent and vivid impreffion.” P. 79. We are now convinced that all this may be alledged; but we confefs that if we had not feen it actually alledged, we could not have thought it poffible. Who told Mr. Belfham or Mr. Lindsey, that, on this occafion, our Lord was more referved to his friends than to his enemies, or that he did not hint to his difciples what he proclaimed to the Jews? Neither they nor we could ever have known any thing of this converfation, had it not been related to us by one of the difciples; and it is not eafy to conceive, how St. John could have related what he had never heard! If he heard it, he was probably prefent, indeed he appears to have been prefent when the converfation took place; or if he was not prefent, it must have been communicated to him in private by his divine Mafter; for we are affured by St. Mark *, that "when they were aloue, Jefus expounded all things to his difciples." Whether our Lord taught the doctrine of his own pre-existence frequently, depends upon the meaning of that vaft variety of texts, about which the Trinitarians and Unitarians are at iffue; but that the pre-exifience of the Meffiah was no extraordinary doctrine among the Jews of that period, we have in part proved already, and fhall more fully prove afterwards. Whether that doctrine, was attended to, and made a permanent and vivid impreffion, can be known only by an impartial ftudy of the New Teftament, and of the writings of the Fa.hers of the primitive Church; and not by the partial reports of any modern writer, who hopes to build his own faine on the ruin of establishments, or on his daring oppofition to ancient truth. (To be continued in our next.) BRIT. CRIT. VOL XXXVIII. NOV. 1811. ART. 10s. 6d. ART. V. Chriftina, the Maid of the South Seas; a Poem. 332 PP. THIS very well told, and fingularly interefling tale, is founded on facts which have recently come to light, refpecting the mutineers who feized the Bounty. It has been afcertained lately, on the report of an American captain, verified by other collateral circumftances, that Chriflian, the chief of the mutineers took the fhip back to Otaheité, that there he was d ferted by all his crew, except eight, who, as well as himself, married Otaheitean women; and in 1790 with them, and fix fervants from the fame country, he failed in the Bounty to Pitcairn's Illand, in the South Sea, supposed (but erroneously, as it appears*,) to be the Encarnacion of Quiros, where they broke up the fhip, and formed a little. fettlement. The tremendous fate of all thefe mutineers but one, who was not the principal, the fill more extraordinary event which followed their death, the prefent flourishing state of the little colony under one aged patriarch, connected with the recollection of Captain Bligh's most affecting narrative, form an affemblage of circumftances, fo fingular, fo inftructive, and fo interefting, that we cannot too highly commend the taste and feeling of Mifs Mitford, in felecting this real hiftory as the fubject of her narrative. We perfectly agree with the author in the wifh, that no attempt may ever be made to diflurb the one furvivor, who muft in the interval have fuffered more than any human juftice could inflict, and who is now become a character of intereft and importance, in the clofe of his eventful days. We extract Mifs M.'s note upon the subject, as containing an appeal which humanity ought not to relift. "I have the authority of the gentleman who favoured me. with most of the particulars relative to Pitcairn's Ifland, for ftating, that there is a cavern under a hill, to which Smith (the Fitz-allan of my poem) had once retired, at the approach of fome English veffels, as a place of concealment and fecurity. The fhips paffed on; but the cave was ftill held facred by the iflanders, lately about 35 perfons] as a means of future protection to their revered benefactor. Never may that protection be required! * Mifs Mitford very juftly points out the striking difference between the flat Ifland of Encarnacion, defcribed by Quiros, and the high rock of Pitcairn's Ifland, which, Capt. Carteret fays, was feen at the diftance of more than fifteen leagues. Never may an English veffel bring other tidings than thofe of peace and pardon to one who has fo fully expiated his only crime." Sufficient blood has been already fhed for the demands of juftice; and mercy may now raife her voice at the foot of that throne where the never pleads in vain. On being asked by Captain Folger [the American who brought the account] if he wished his exittence to remain a fecret, Smith immediately anfwered, "No!" and, pointing to the young and blooming band by whom he was furrounded, continued, "Do you think any man could feek my life, with fuch a picture as this before his eyes?" P. 305. We agree that no one could or ought, efpecially as we are told by the fame authority that he has bred up his young colony in the principles of Religion and morality. The crime was, perhaps, too heinous, and of too bad example in the navy, to authorize a direct pardon to any perfon concerned in it; but we will venture to fay, that no English heart will ever fuffer the hand to write an order for the apprehenfion of a man fo circumftanced. We are happy to give the unequivocal teftimony of our opinion to the fuccefs of Mifs Mitford in relating this fingular tale; to which the has given additional interest by the introduction of a natural and affecting Love-Tale. Mr. Walter Scott having fhown that our eight fyllable couplet, relieved by breaks refembling flanzas, is an excellent metre for eafy narrative, Mifs M. has availed herfelf of this ex-mple; and has conftructed her prefent poem exactly in that ftyle. It confifts of Four Cantos, with occafionally a lyric piece introduced; and an arbitrary fubdivifion into paragraphs or ftanzas. That this style of narrative will for a while prevail is very probable, It is eafy and agreeable to the reader; and to the writer infinitely more eafy than that familiar heroic couplet, in which the Tales of Dryden are so happily compofed. We make no protest against the temporary change, unlefs we could fear that the one would banish the other. Our expectation rather is that the new ftyle will foon pafs by, and the old be again demanded. We grant, however, the prefent tale flows much more gracefully in the fhort couplet, than it could probably have been inade to do in the longer." The Poem opens with a florm, with is prepared and drawn with equal fpirit. I. "The fetting fun, with lurid ray, li 2 And, |