1800. ] 
mediate direction of the garden, fhall infpect 
the conduct of the gardeners, the manage- 
ment of the ftoves, the cultivation of the 
plants, éc. , 
When it is deemed that a fufficient num- 
ber of names is obtained to anfaver the ends 
of the inftitution, a general meeting of the 
proprietors will be called for the purpole of 
framing the neceflary regulations, electing 
the officers, and other bufinefs. 
I remain, yours, 
‘ANB. 

For the Monthly Magazine. 
ATIOKAAY¥15, or, THE DISCOVERY. 
If a man affents to the undifputed books, he 
is no longer an infidel; though he fhould 
not hold the Revelations, or the Epiitle 
of St. James or Jude, or the latter of St. 
Peter, or the two laft of St. John, to be 
canonical. 
BERKELEY’s Minute Philofopher, 
Dizlague VI. 
HETHER the Apocalypfe, Mr. 
\ Editor, be or be not a canonical, 
it is certainly a puzzling book; for no- 
body feems fatisfied with any expofition 
but his own. Yet the work is furely not 
a mere map of the hippogryffon wander- 
ings of fome difordered imagination—nor 
an Arabian tale written to fatirize the ge- 
nuine Scriptures by a parcdy of their more 
prominent imagery. It has too much 
method for madnefs, and too much zeal 
for fneer. The poet is fo full of force and 
fancy, that one cannot but afcribe to him 
fome defign, view, drift, {cope, or pur- 
pofe, fome object, end, and aim. Why 
fhould not one idler more try his luck at 
gueffing? 

The earlieft external evidence to the ex- 
iftence of the Apocalypfe mutt be referred 
to the year 170, ornearly fo. Juftin Mar- 
tyr firft quotes it, and in the dialogue 
with Trypho. As this work is incom~- 
plete, it was no dowbt yet unfinifhed at 
the time of the author’s death, who was 
executed foon after that year. Should it 
be maintained that he fuffered earlier, re- 
fuge could be had to the arguments and 
authority of Wetflein, who conlents to 
- afcribe this dialogue to fome author pofte- 
rior to Juftin. a 
Internal evidence is no lefs deficient in 
afcertaining the date, birth-place, and 
author of the Apocalyple. It was not 
written at Ephefus by John the Evange- 
litt ; becaufe the church of Thyatira, and 
the fect of Nicolaitans, exifted not in his 
time. It was not written in the /Egyp- 
tian Alexandria; becaufe the dialect 
abounds not exclufvely with thofe pecu- 
lharities which Sturz enumerates as chas 
On the Apocalypfe. i 4 
{> 
ay oh 
Saf 
raGteriftic of the writers of that place. 
Was it written at Antioch, another creat 
metropolis of Chriftian literature, a place 
in which the Sirialins, the allufions to 
Mithriac religion, the violently fAgurative 
Orientaliims of ftyle and imagery, might 
naturally occur, and find fympathy? Per- 
hans fo. And for want of more iatisfac= 
tory data, let the fuppofitious name, Jobs 
of Aatioch, ftand for that of the unknown 
author: it may ferve, like an X in Alge~ 
bra, ‘toreafon with. 
What is the prevailing character of this 
man’s pamphlet? Newtcn, Brothers, one 
needs not look to your books for the mean- 
ing! Hiffory fuficess In whatloever 
country or age, in whatfoever town or 
twelvemonth, this work has been dragged 
into notice, read attentively, commented 
on, and difputed about—it has made one 
unvarying impreffton. Confult the Phi- 
lopatris for its effect under Julian at Con- 
ftantinople. 
hands of Joachim of Calabria, of the Fran- 
Obferve its operation in the 
cif{cans at Rome, of the foliowers. of Lu- > 
> 
ther and Calvin, or of Jurieu in France. 
In our own former troubles, Prefbyterians 
and Millenarians; in our late fkirmifhes, 
Socinians and Methoditts, have read in it 
one language—the language of fedition. To 
all its ftudiers it appears to preach revolt 
againit a heathen magifirate, or a magif- 
trate whom fchifmatics choofe to confider 
as heathen. Tach fect, in perufing the 
Apocalypfe, has difcovered its intolerant 
rulers to be typified by the beaft, and the 
place of their refidence by Babylon; its 
own church by thenew Jerufalem, and by 
the fecond Meffiah the man whom it ex- 
pected to chieftain the projected rebellion. 
Tt is qbvicus to infer, that fuch was really 
the view of citizen John of Antioch: and 
that the Apocalyple is in fact the manifefte 
of fome Syrian Hugh Peters, defirous of 
predifpofing his brethren in the faith to fe- 
cond the rebellious intentions of fome Sy- 
rian Oliver Cromwell. And why flart at 
the inference? Is it a perverfion of com- 
mon fenfe.in theology to fulpe&t that Ba- 
bylon may mean Babylon; and the Eu- 
phrates, the Euphrates ? 
As only one Syrian rebel croffed the 
Euphrates, and, took Babylon, ,there is 
no choice of heroes. This was done by 
Avidius Caffius in the year 165. He was 
a native of Kirc, a refident at Antioch, and 
in* favour with the citizens there, of whem, 

* Ergo correla difciplina et in Armenig, 
et in Arabia, et in Egypto, res optime geflit, 
amatusque eft ab omnivus Orientalibus, et {pe- 
ciatim ab Antiochenfibus, qui ettam imperia 
ejus confenfgrunt.* Auguflan Hifory, I. 
p. 308. 
accord- 
