300 
Nor was his proficiency imuniverfal {cience 
lefs aftonithing; he was celebrated asa 
profound logician, an able difputant, and 
a found philofopher ; as a linguift he had 
not his equal, happily there remain fome 
fpecimens cf his Latin cempofition, which 
challenge an Augu/fan purity ; in divinity 
he was only aot doctor, and he had even 
dived into the abftrufer myfteries of aftro- 
logy and magic, as fanéctioned by the 
ftudies of Agrippa and Bacot.: We are 
informed by his few biographers of his 
being A. M. and feliow of Trinity Col- 
lege, Cambridge ; but I could not fatisfy 
my, perhaps, trifling curiofity, with regard 
to the accident that occafioned the lofs of 
his finger, which he bemoans with fuch 
burlefque gravity, intwo of his thorter 
pieces. But, “ Nos bec novimus effe ni- 
bil.” 
In an age when fuperior talent is held 
almof in a degree of adoration—when the 
meaneft effort of a juvenile, or low-born 
fancy, is received with infatiate voracity— 
when ancient records and black. lettered 
legends are fnatched from their dufty re- 
ceffes to fhine in all the pomp of typogra- 
phy, quitting their former brown apparel 
tor vellum imperial—I am furprifed, I 
mutt confefs, that the revifing hand of 
fome titled commentator has not chanced 
to defcend upon the unknown, forlorn, 
ragged little volume which holds the me- 
deft remains of ‘THoMas RANDOLPH. 
Happy fhail I be, if, through my unaf- 
fuming introduétion, he fhould come, 
ence more, into public favour; happy, 
fhould fome more able writer refcue fuch 
a fource of refined entertainment from its 
prefent total ob{curity, and place it in that 
enviable ftation it deferves—amongf the 
preduétions of thefe wonderful, thofe fin- 
gular individuals, who gained the fummits 
of fame, before others had made any con- 
fiderable advances from the bottom; and 
who, at the period of comparative infan- 
cy, have reaped the deliberate laurels of 
age. 
Feb. 9, 1801. 
—tae 
D. 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
REMARKS 0” the BOOK of ENOCH. 
HOSE extracts from the Book of 
Enoch (inferted in p. 18 in your firft 
number), which accompany an enquiry 
concerning fecond Efdras, have excited 
fome reflections, for which you will per- 
haps afford: {pace. : 
The doftrines of a laft judgment, and 
of the defiruéction of the world by fire, pre- 
~paratory to a palingenefy of nature, and 
Of Enoch, Ezra, 7) Zoreafter.. 
[May Ty 
to the falvation cf the chéfen righteous, 
evidently form a prominent feature of the 
Book of Enoch. Such dc&rines collec- 
tively do not occur in the Jewifh pro- 
phets prior to Malachi; but in his fourth 
chapter they do diftinétly occur. Surely 
then it may fafely be concluded that the 
Book of Enoch was written before Ma- 
Jachi, and after all the other prophetic 
books. 
May it not moreover be inferred that 
the name Elijah (Malachi iv. §) is a cor= 
rupt reading for Enoch. Enoch being 
defcribed as a preacher of repentance and 
the precurfor of the deluge, it was very 
natural for Malachi to announce the com- | 
mg of another Enoch before the fecond 
judgment, before the other great and 
dreadful day of the Lord. . Whereas the 
name of Elijah is ftrangely unfuitable ; for 
he was a preacher not ef repentance but of 
perfecution (1 Kings xviii. 40); he was 
the forerunner of no remarkable cataf- 
trophe ; and he has certainly not merited 
the honourable mention of a friend to 
Refides, Malachi isal- -- 
peace and equity. 
luding to the Book of Enoch; the name of 
Elijah would hardly offer itfelf to him in 
that connexion. : 
‘Yet this moft doubtful reading in Ma- ; 
lachi was already an eftablifhed corruption 
of the Jewifh copies of their canen in 
the time of Chrift. Elie Peter, in behold- 
ing the transniguration, would have pre- 
fumed Mofes and Evoch to be the appears 
ing perfons: and John the Baptift (Mat- 
thew xi. 14) would have been compared, 
not with Elias but with Enoch. 
There are pafiages not only in Malachi 
and Ecclefiafticus, but in feveral Chriftian 
canonical fcriptures (compare: Matthew 
xxii. 30, with Enoch xv. &c.) which 
apparently recognize the book of Enech: 
fo tirat it would be difficult to indicate any 
acknowledged criterion of canonicity, by 
which a place could be refufed tothis bock 
of Enock in our own canon of Scripture. 
Can nothing be conjeétured as. to the 
{cribe? The traditional reputation of 
Ezra among the Jews tranfcends his ap- 
parent efficacy: the forgery of a fecond 
book of Ejdras proves that he was believ- 
ed to have written apocalyptic rhapfodies: — 
he preceded Malachi, and furvived the 
late(t of the other prophets. A covert at- 
tack on the intermarriage of Jews with 
heathen women feems fheathed inthe ab- 
horrence exprefled throughout the Book of 
Encch at the intercourfe of the fons of 
Ged with the daughters of men. It -has 
been iufpeéted too, that the name Zoroaf- 
ter cifguifes that of Ezra, with the addi- 
- 
7 
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