earnest of unmixed and eternal punishment. 5. The Christian is also hence encouraged, when harassed by temptation and defilement, with the sure prospect of being delivered from this body of death and the bondage of corruption. As the desires of his soul are now spiritual, and his mind heavenly, so will his body be hereafter. He will then enjoy true and perfect liberty from sin and temptation. His corporeal frame, vile as it now is, shall then be changed by the mighty working of the Lord Jesus, and be "fashioned like unto his glorious body." "It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption: it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power: it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. As we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." 6. But moreover the text promises, not only deliverance from vanity and corruption, but also the possession of great privileges and honour. The Christian will change the bondage of corruption for the glorious liberty of the children of God. For then will all such be declared before the assembled world, and the angelic host, to be the adopted children of God by faith in the Redeemer, in whose blood they had washed and made white their robes. They will then be put into complete possession of that : eternal glory, for which they had long hoped, and which had been pledged to them by the unchangeable promises of God's holy word upon their exercise of faith in Christ Jesus, and the renewal of their minds by his Holy Spirit. Hence unto such to die is gain, and to depart and to be with Christ is far better. Finally, should not this hope console us under trials, and encourage us to bear our sufferings with. patience? Though now we may for a season be in heaviness through manifold temptations, should we not greatly rejoice under the trial of our faith? and though groaning within ourselves from the vanity and corruption to which we are still subject, yet wait patiently without murmuring or repining for the redemption of our body, and the enjoyment of all the privileges of our adoption into the family of God. Then shall we reap in joy, though now we may sow in tears. "Beloved," says the Apostle St. John, "now are we the sons of God, and it does not appear what we shall be;" i. e. what shall be our exact state in heaven. "But we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." We shall be conformed to the divine image and there will be no remains of vanity, corruption, and sin, to mar the likeness of God in the souls or bodies of his adopted children. CLERICUS NORTHUMBRIENSIS. NEW DISCOVERIES IN EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPHICS*. FROM THE ARCHIVES DU CHRISTIANISME, 1823. THE origin and object of the ancient monuments of Asia have long occupied the attention of the learned. These enormous wrecks of an extinct civilization not only excite surprize, but open immense fields for critical conjecture and hy *Vide Champollion, Lettre à M. Dacier, 1822 and 1824. pothesis. The most eminent men of France, Germany, and England have, in turn, attempted to dispel the darkness which hangs over these forsaken edifices, whose style is so totally different from every other species of architecture. Among et Précis du Système Hieroglyphique. Paris, the countries most renowned, as well from their past as present state, Egypt occupies the first rank. Many circumstances conspired to draw attention more particularly to this country; its proximity to Europe the number of its monuments-the facility with which they could be explored, and the conjectures hazarded by ancient historians on their origin and object. In this country, also, a very singular circumstance has redoubled the astonishment of the vulgar, and the just curiosity of the learned. Mystic characters were found engraven on the greater number of those edifices which had survived the wreck of time. The buildings erected by the Pharaohs-the catacombs of Thebes-the gigantic temples of Denderah, Latopolis, and Alphao-the obelisks of Philoe and Memphis, are covered with an astonishing number of symbols, concealing, no doubt, truths important to the historian and philosopher. In this inquiry, however, interests of a far higher nature should animate us. The study of these monuments nearly concerns that of religion, and is connected with the history of the first ages of the world. The question is this; whether the statements of Moses are confirmed by these edifices? Whether the chronology and history of these ancient remains agree with the recitals of Holy Scripture? The sublime books of the Old Testament, which shine among the theological compositions of the eastern nations, as a light in the dark, have been attacked, both as to their authenticity and antiquity, by writers who drew their objections from a superficial examination of these ancient monuments. In our own times, immense labour has been employed with respect to these monuments, and important consequences have been the result. Quite recently, also, a learned Frenchman has succeeded in decy phering the Egyptian language. The problem, so often attempted, is resolved at last; and what is very remarkable, the latest researches, and all the facts elicited by learning and talent, confirm, in a most striking manner, the recitals of Moses, the events he relates, and the period, according to him, to which we must refer the sacred history. It is in this point of view that our readers will feel all the importance of the present inquiry; and it is the application of these new discoveries to the veracity of the Scripture narrative which forms the subject of the present article. It is only within the last twenty years, that we possess a complete and detailed account of the antiquities of Egypt. We are indebted for this to the French expedition, when a whole army was employed as escort to a body of savans. Geometricians, natural historians, and scholars, all were engaged in the description of a country so fertile in recollections; and by their united labours every thing was studied and measured with great exactness. The catacombs of Thebes, the religious paintings on the royal tombs, the MSS. of papyrus, the characters on the sacred bandages of the mummies, were all points of the greatest importance in the question of the antiquity of the monuments of Egypt. Topographical measurements and astronomical researches were undertaken, and brought to a conclusion with equal courage and success. We shall only notice, in the last place, the zodiacs, which were described with the greatest care, and a rich series of inscriptions, because it is to researches upon them that we are indebted for the discoveries about to be mentioned. The most important discoveries, however, respecting Egypt, are due to M. Champollion, jun. who is the first that has succeeded in reading the hieroglyphical inscriptions, and, consequently, in bringing them within the period of historical record, and destroying those dreams of their antiquity by which many writers had assailed the Mosaic chronology. That our readers may judge of the confidence that may be reposed in Mr. C. we shall now proceed to give an outline of the means by which he has obtained such important results. The French savans, in the great work on Egypt, had given an exact copy of the famous Rosetta inscription, which, as it presents a long series of hieroglyphical characters, along with a Greek translation, has commanded the largest share of the attention of philologers. The inscription was made under Ptolemy Euergetes, King of Egypt. The question to be resolved was, which of the Egyptian characters had a corresponding one in Greek? And the difficulty was still more increased by the question, whether the Egyptian signs are paintings representing objects, or words representing ideas. M. Champollion remarked, in the Greek inscription, many proper names, such as Cæsar, Cleopatra, Alexander, &c. and observed, at the same time, that these names in the Egyptian inscription seemed to be indicated by certain characters included in a kind of circle. On comparing the letters of the Greek word Cleopatra with the corresponding hieroglyphics, and extending the comparison to all the other proper names of the inscription, he discovered, that the same Greek letters invariably corresponded with the same characters in hieroglyphics. This was a ray of light; and all that was now necessary was to take a series of Greek letters, and place opposite to them the corresponding hieroglyphics, and thus form a complete alphabet, Greek and Egyptian. With such valuable data M. C. had only to examine the signs on the monuments, and instantly to * He on the deduce the corresponding characters and words in Greek. This alphabet, called from its properties Phonetic, was a key to the fact, that the Egyptian monuments are of a much more recent date than had been attributed to them. read, with perfect ease, temples of Philoe, Ombos, Esne, and Denderah, the proper names of Alexander the Great, Ptolemy, Cleopatra, and Berenice. On many other temples, whose fronts were covered with hieroglyphics; on the obelisks brought to Rome by the Antonines; and, in short, on the circular zodiac of Denderah, now at Paris, he deciphered the names and titles of many Roman Emperors, of Tiberius, Nerva, Domitian, Adrian, Antoninus, &c. Thus have vanished those vain hypotheses which have pointed to these ancient monuments, as falsifying the Mosaic record. But there are still more curious results to be mentioned. An attentive examination of the monuments of ancient Egypt, aided by the new discoveries, has shown that not a single monument of all those which have been described up to the present day, can pretend to a higher antiquity than 1800 years before Christ. Now, Moses places the sojourn of the Israelites in Egypt about the year 1600 B. C. which is precisely the period, as nearly as can be made out, of their erection. We shall now dwell briefly on the argument from history in support of this. The inquiry as to the state of Egypt during the successive dominion of the Greeks and Romans, is closely connected with every theory on the antiquity of its monuments; and the question, whether the conquerors of Egypt were able to change its customs and superstitions- if it is admitted, that the rites and architecture associated with them were not modified by the conquest, will be resolved by admitting also, that under the dynasties of the Lagides, the Ptolemies, and even at the period of the Antonines, monuments in the ancient Egyptian style continued to be erected. M. Letronne, of the Institute, with all the helps of learning and criticism, is at present engaged in this inquiry. He has carefully examined and compared more than a hundred decrees, edicts, and petitions, in the Greek and Latin languages, copied from the edifices of Nubia and Syria, and even of Greece and Italy, which have reference to Egypt; and has proved from the comparison, that the monuments bearing these inscriptions have no claim to the high antiquity assigned to them by some writers, and shown, that from the time of Cambyses down to the Lagides and Romans, the Egyptians built in the ancient style; as is proved from the Greek inscription always containing the name of that part of the building where it is placed. It may now be regarded as perfectly demonstrated, that three species of monuments exist in Egypt; the style of the first ascending to Cambyses; that of the second belonging to the epoch of the Ptolemies; and the third to the dominion of the Romans; and what is very remarkable, these three orders differ only by slight shades, and the same symbols and characters are found on them; from which M. Letronne draws the important inference, that during the empire of the Persians, the Greeks and Romans, the people of Egypt preserved inviolate the religion and the arts of their ancestors. Such are the structures to which, from their style of architecture, an antiquity had been assigned of three thousand years before Christ! Whereas, in fact, they belong to the period of the Antonines, i. e. two hundred years after Christ. It is a decisive proof, in this species of research, that, by means of the Phonetic Alphabet of M. Cham pollion, the names of the sovereigns who erected the monuments may be read, without doubt and without difficulty. We shall return to this new and important subject, and expose in their true colours the numerous systems lately set up on the Egyptian zodiacs; and show how idle and erroneous are the ideas of Dupuis and his school, of which so weighty an argument has been constructed against the Bible. Unquestionably, these inquiries well merit our deepest attention. It is not enough, that a careful examination of the remains of the ancient worship of idolatrous nations shows us the proofs of human corruption, and the urgent need of a revelation for the salvation of man, divested of the dignity of his nature, and of his rights to a happy immortality; the monuments of antiquity seem also to take part in the defence of the Gospel, and of the holy books which preceded them. These mysterious ruins-these unknown symbols-these gigantic structures, after a silence of more than twenty centuries, now depose to the truth of the religion of which we are the disciples; whilst the period of these discoveries is also very remarkable. After a rash and imperfect philosophy had attempted to destroy our religious hopes, by removing to an indefinite period the time of the creation, more profound researches bring us back to the recitals of Moses, confirming all the circumstances of his history; and the monuments, whose antiquity was pleaded against the Bible, now render their homage to it. It belongs to us, who profess a pure Christianity, carefully to collect these new proofs of revelation, added in the progress of human reason; while they afford fresh evidence, that the Gospel is the enemy of no science, of no species of improvement; and that, in proportion as knowledge spreads and inquiry becomes more general, our faith will be more active and more firm, because more enlightened. REVIEW OF BOOKS. 1. A Practical Commentary on St. Peter, &c. by Robert Leigh ton, D.D. Archbishop of Glasgow; to which is added, a Life of the Author, by the Rev. J. N. Pearson. 2 Vols, Pp. ccvi. and 328 and 620. 2. Memoirs of the Rev. Joseph Benson. By the Rev. James Macdonald.-Pp. viii. 541. Blanshard. 3. The Life and Diary of Lieut.Col. J. Blackader. By Andrew Crichton.-Pp. xii. 578. Baynes. FEW publications attract more general attention, and are more truly beneficial, than the lives of pious and eminent individuals.Many of these are continually appearing, and are of course accompanied by numerous records of persons whose memories no warmth of private friendship can materially retard in their progress toward oblivion. Some of these productions are long, particular, and tedious beyond endurance; while, in others we are compelled to lament in common with the biographer the very scanty remains which exist of men of whom the world was not worthy, but whose names are written in heaven, and whose memories are dear to all who have derived from their imperishable writings instruction and consolation. Such have been our feelings in bastily perusing the Memoirs of the venerable Archbishop Leighton, which have just emerged from the press, prefixed to a new edition of his valuable Commentary on St. Peter, and other Expository Writings, by the Rev. J. N. Pearson; an individual in whom many of our readers must now feel deeply interested, in consequence of his recent appointment as Principal of the Church Missionary College at Islington. It will gratify them to learn, that in the retirement to which this respectable clergyman was compelled, by seMAR. 1825. vere indisposition, to betake himself, the character and the writings of this holy archbishop formed the subject of contemplation; and those intimately acquainted with the invaluable Commentary on St. Peter will rejoice, that the superintendence of the devoted characters, who are about to go forth as missionaries to various parts of the earth, is intrusted to one who has learned to venerate an example which, in the most distracted times, excited the admiration of the church, and compelled the reluctant homage and veneration of designing politicians and ungodly and licentious men. Mr. Pearson, as we have already intimated, complains of the scanty materials which, with the utmost industry, he has been able to obtain. It is somewhat humiliating to the votaries of posthumous reputation to discover, that in the short space of 150 years after the death of a most eminently holy man, scarcely a fragment can be obtained but what has previously been published; and that various letters and papers, known to be in existence during a great part of that period, are now sought for, and sought for in vain. Mr. P. has, however, made the best use of his materials; and we trust, that his memoir may shortly appear ir: a detached form, in order that those who have long since enriched their libraries with the works of Leightou, may add to their stores the present and by far the best memoir of the author which has yet appeared. The following extracts may at once convey an idea of Mr. P.'s style, and of the character of that eminent individual whose memory it records. Leighton was not by nature morose-and ascetic yet something of a cloisteral com plexion appears to have been wrought in him by the character of the times, and by |