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the colures, in the same manner as had been done by king Nicepsos 250 years earlier. 6th, Eudoxus visits Egypt in the middle of the 4th century B. c. and there studies astronomy: he adopts the sphere of Meton, and finds no variation in the Egyptian sphere, or would doubtless have profited by it. 7th, Sosigenes, the Alexandrian astronomer, assists at the construction of the Julian calendar, B. c. 45, into which the Egyptian year is adopted, and places the colures in the eighth deg. of the signs, where king Nicepsos had left them more than 600 years before.

It follows, that the correction by Nicepsos was the last which the old Hermaic calendar received; and that the Egyptian sphere, as well as the Greek and Roman sphere, derived from it, continued fixed to the eighth deg. of the signs until after the conquest of Egypt by the Romans-the parallel extending on the one hand from Nicepsos to Sosigenes, and on the other, from Thales to Pliny.

There are two other stages of the ancient sphere mentioned by Achilles Tatius, who enumerates the first deg. and the eighth deg. as the places of the colures at different times. These are the twelfth deg. and fifteenth deg. which, preceding the root of the sphere of Nicepsos and Thales, must refer to previous corrections of the Hermaic longitudes. The twelfth deg. will be found accurately to correspond with the date of the sphere of Osymandyas, and the fifteenth deg. with that of the Moris, as does the eighth deg. with the sphere of Nicepsos. The coincidence last mentioned, together with the historical characters of the age, and its coincidence with the Varronian limits of true Grecian history, is however enough for the present purpose, and I trust has been proved, 1st, to furnish a practical example of the validity of the principles of Egyptian time which I have attempted to develop; and 2dly, a full elucidation of the origin of the Greek sphere of Eudoxus, and an answer to the difficulties which have hitherto involved that question.

Much more might be adduced in support of what has been advanced in the foregoing outline; but enough has, I trust, been said to prove that the key presented by Egyptian science tends to place the subject in a clearer point of view than any solution heretofore proposed-the parallelism of the Egyptian with the Greek and Roman sphere being demonstrably complete, from the first dawn of international communication until the times of the Roman empire ;-as well as to resolve the question, why the Greeks and Romans during so many centuries adopted a fixed zodiac, having the colures in the eighth deg. of the cardinal signs, and widely different from any possible result of Grecian or Roman observation.

391.

MR. BAXTER'S

NARRATIVE OF FACTS."

MR. Baxter's case, on any possible view of it, is a most awful one; it is worthy of the most deep and reverent consideration, and ought to humble every truly Christian soul. One of two things must be granted by all: it is undeniable that Mr. Baxter either was formerly, or now is, under the possession of Satan; and under this possession either to have been, or to be, so completely enslaved, both in body and mind, as to seem reduced to the condition of an irresponsible passive agent, not to be conscious in either case of the possession, and in both cases to believe himself under the influence of the Holy Spirit-the extraordinary formerly, when under a supernatural power; the ordinary at present, and by which he says, that, in the exercise of reason, he has discovered that the supernatural power which once seemed to him holy, must have been evil.

But the marvel does not stop here; for all the most pious and judicious of Mr. Baxter's friends recognised the scriptural truth and holiness of that supernatural power which came upon him, and received as the message of God the words which fell from his lips; and when Mr. Baxter fell, the great majority of these, his friends-we might probably say all, with the exception of four or five-fell not with him: most of them still hold fast their confidence, notwithstanding his change of mind, and have hitherto resisted all the arguments adduced by him to bring them to his present way of thinking, or to abandon the conviction of their souls, that Mr. Baxter really spake in the power of the Holy Ghost.

If Mr. Baxter was devil-possessed, as he asserts, what a fearful case is that! and what bitter repentance, and depth of humiliation, does it not call for! And how much more bitter and deep should be the repentance and humiliation of the man who has not only been himself the sport and the fool of Satan, but has been the instrument in his hand for bringing thousands into the toils of hell, where they still lie captive; and is thus the murderer of so many souls!

And if Mr. Baxter be now deluded, as we are sure he is, it is a case still most fearful for him: inasmuch as those who have been once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and been made partakers of the Holy Ghost, if they fall away, can scarcely be renewed again unto repentance: with God only, the Almighty, is it possible. And to one so situated, who blas phemes the name and power of God by giving his glory to Satan, it is fearful to contemplate the further stages of blasphemy to which Satan may entice him he may be led to commit the unpardonable sin of blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, from which may God preserve poor Baxter !

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The awfulness of his own case seems to have been in some degree apprehended by Mr. Baxter, where he reminds "all serious readers, that any assumption of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, however unfounded, is too deep an offence against God to be met by the taunts of ridicule or contempt." But we would wish to see some greater indications of compunction in him for having thus offended against God, and this seems to us a proof that his conscience is at present darkened and benumbed by Satan. May the Holy Spirit speedily awaken him to a sense of his personal guilt in this matter, that so he may be humbled in the sight of his God, against whom he has so deeply offended on his own shewing that, being thus taught humility, he may be taught the occasion of his fall-how he gave advantage to the enemyand how he may recover the favour of God, through the atoning blood of Jesus.

Mr. Baxter's present state of spiritual darkness and delusion has blinded his understanding and bewildered his judgment, ór he could not but see the weakness and inconsistency of his reasoning and prejudice and passion have equally blinded those who applaud and encourage him in his delusion, or they would see that the same line of argument by which Mr. Baxter attempts to invalidate the present work of the Spirit in the church would, if sound, invalidate every former work of the Spirit, and is the very line of argument adopted by infidels to degrade the Scriptures and to deny the being of God.

The discrepancies which Mr. Baxter asserts he discovered between different utterances of the Spirit, are not so great as the discrepancies which infidels profess to find between different parts of Scripture: the cavils of infidels Mr. Baxter has no difficulty in answering, but his own less specious cavils he thinks to be unanswerable!

Many, very many, are the instances in the New Testament where it is said, "then was fulfilled that which was spoken by the prophets," but where the greatest ingenuity of the wit of man would not have expected such a fulfilment of the prophecy. The name Immanuel, the wise men's offering, Rachael weeping for her children, the throne of David, the tabernacle of David, and multitudes of other passages, must occur to every Biblical student; and the blasphemies of the Jews and the perversions of the Papists present two whole classes of difficulties of the same kind, which, if Mr. Baxter can solve and reconcile, he may easily solve and reconcile his own doubts and difficulties; and if he cannot surmount the little stumbling-blocks over which he has fallen, he ought, in consistency, to tolerate the Jew, the Papist, and the infidel, in their still greater difficulties and more embarrassing perplexities. The disciples were fools, and slow of heart to understand the Scriptures; and unless Mr. Baxter will

be content to be a fool-to renounce his own pride of intellect, and be taught by the Spirit of Jesus alone-he shall never know the truth of God, which alone can make him free.

We desire still to bear in mind a grateful remembrance of what Mr. Baxter taught us when he was led by the Spirit of God, and to be unwearied in our prayers that he may be delivered from that oppression of the enemy which now weighs him down ; which has not only burdened his spirit, but so grievously darkened his understanding, that he seems to have lost the faculty of reasoning, and even of distinguishing between truth and falsehood. It is truly a fearful case of delusion; but while God bears with him, and spares him, and calls him to repent, we must do so likewise; taking care, at the same time, not to shrink from glorifying God by declaring the truth; not to compromise faithfulness by false tenderness, which would be no charity, no love to God or to man.

Mr. Baxter's " Narrative" came into our hands only a few days before the publication of our last Number; and though we perceived that there were many mistakes, not only in what he put forth on the testimony of others, but in what Mr. Baxter had himself witnessed, we could not contradict those misstatements without sifting them to the bottom, by conference with the several persons referred to. Our readers will not be more surprised in being informed, than we were in discovering, that there is scarcely a single occurrence stated with accuracy; and that we have been positively assured, by all the persons resident in London who are named in Mr. Baxter's "Narrative," that the inconsistencies imputed to them are founded in mistake, and the words they are said to have uttered were not spoken by them. In all our former acquaintance with Mr. Baxter, up to the time of his fall, we esteemed him to be a man of the strictest integrity; and we are bound in charity to believe that he is not at present conscious of having deviated from the truth: but, then, the only possible explanation which remains is, that he now lies under the dominion of a spirit of falsehood and delusion.

We had collected ample materials for demonstrating this, point by point, beginning with the very first meeting where Mr. Baxter heard the voice of the Spirit at which we were present, and going through all the meetings which took place in London; but recent occurrences prevent our putting these materials in order, and our notice of Mr. Baxter must now be very brief. Many of Mr. Baxter's mistakes have been already exposed in a tract, published by Douglas, entitled "The Spirit in Mr. Baxter tried by Scripture," which we know to be correct, and recommend to the attention of our readers.

The leading mistake, and that which pervades the whole "Narrative," is doctrinal. Mr. Irving's doctrine is mistaken by

Mr. Baxter; misstated even on his own shewing; misapplied to support the charge of delusion; and misimputed to those who never held it. To one who understands Mr. Irving's doctrine concerning the flesh which Christ took in order to manifest God in it, we need not say, that in all the passages from Mr. Irving's writings, which have been denounced as containing heretical doctrine, the context clearly shews that Mr. Irving is in those passages treating of the human nature apart from the Divine nature, both of which were combined to form the one person of Christ; but his opponents make the person of Christ to consist solely of the one or the other of these two distinct and immiscible natures; either deifying the manhood, under the specious pretence of glorifying Christ; or denying the Godhead, to vilify Mr. Irving.

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It was not fair, or just, or honourable in Mr. Baxter, to publish Mr. Irving's letters, which were so strictly private and confidential that he did not even keep a copy of them; and letters so written ought not to be subjected to scrutiny, like records of deliberate well-considered doctrines which have been prepared for publication. But in the letter on which Mr. Baxter comments, Mr. Irving expressly states that he is treating of the flesh of Christ, as to its passive qualities or properties, as a creature thing" (p. 107); and surely common sense and common justice require that this, which was the leading idea in the mind of the writer, should be the leading idea in the mind of the reader, and govern the sense of what follows. Surely no one, who has any common sense left, will maintain that a mere creature thing, be it what it may, can have the attributes of Godhead ascribed to it! A creature, however perfect in its kind, must have limitation: Godhead has no limitation; God alone is infinite in holiness, power, and duration. To the flesh of Christ we must give creature attributes, while to the person of Christ, which was God as well as man, we give the attributes of God: and even to our flesh, sinful and fallen as it is, the Scriptures compel us, after regeneration, to give that holiness which beseems the temples of the Holy Ghost; holiness in our bodies becoming the eternal God which they enshrine. If men were not blinded by Satan, they would not put forth such folly as the comments we allude to (p. 109): they would learn, that, though it is written "in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing," it is also written in the next chapter (Rom. viii.) and in very many passages of Scripture, that the Holy Spirit" dwelleth" in us; and they would believe both Scriptures, and maintain both points of doctrine, instead of making void the one by misunderstanding the other.

Mr. Baxter, mistaking the doctrine held, and himself holding erroneous doctrine, thinks he can thus account for the introduc

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