tioned 2 Tim. iv, 1; when it will indeed be too late to give testimony,) and the appearance of Christ without and previous to the appearance of that kingdom, (according to Zech. xii, 10, 11. Matt. xxiv, 30. Rev. i, 7, which is a time of the Jews' repentance,) are quite distinct things. For this latter, being a time of repentance, is utterly inconsistent with a time of happiness and glory; but most suitable to an effectual general call of the Jews.

There is yet another difficulty, (and I confess to me it has seemed the greatest;) viz. to keep the due account of the two Witnesses prophesying in sackcloth 1260 days (that is, years) right and consistent. For unless the Jewish witnessing comes within the compass of that time, how (it may be asked) can it be accounted a part of the testimony of the two Witnesses. To this we give first this general answer; that a testimony to the truth of Christ, once given in as a testimony, is from thenceforward a testimony for ever, let it begin when ever it will. For example; "By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous; and by it his blood (shed in his martyrdom by Cain) yet speaketh ;"-it is still a witness to the truth of Christ, after so many thousands of years. So that all the

y Rom. xi.

witness to the truth, given in by the christian Jews, before the beginning of that interval of the 1260 years, runs out in length to the end thereof: for as it is not to be imagined, that every person or parcel of the witnesses should live just the space of 1260 years; so it must needs be most consentaneous to reason, that the witness for the space of that time is by a succession of witnesses, (though possibly sometimes with some short interval between,) whose testimony lives when they are dead.

Secondly, we answer, that very many testimonies of Christian Jews, witnessing to the truth of Christ, have been given in precisely within the space of the 1260 years, (as ye have heard ;) even though we cut the foot of the account far shorter than most have done.

Finally, having seen that the converted christian Jews shall be the principal party in the glorious restauration ;y &c. and that they shall most certainly give their testimony to Christ at the last, before the beginning of that glory aforesaid; therefore, whoever cannot yet see, are yet by Scripture bound to believe, that the Jews, being converted to Christianity, shall yet have a due time and place for their testimony.

z Dan, xii.

Genesis ii, 4, 5.

Our Bibles have it-" These are 'the generations of the heavens and ' of the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, and every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground." But read-" These are the gen'erations of the heavens and the earth, when they were created; in the day that the Lord God made 'the earth and the heavens: and

upon the name of the Lord" in their families, as may fairly be implied from Heb. xi, 4. (3.) This was a sorrowful time of corrupting religion; as the name signifies which Seth gave at that time to his son: calling him Enos,—that is, sorrowful, grieved, &c. For in those times they prophetically gave names to their children, suitable to times and occasions, present or future. Agreeable to this intimation of the sor

rowfulness of these times, the order of divine history adds another: for as, before this text, we have the profaneness of Lamech; (Gen. iv, 23 ;) so, in the next chapter, Enoch only is singled out from all the rest to be a man that walked with God. And chap. vi, which by natural suc.. cession is to be linked on to this chap. 4, (the vth chapter being inserted, saith Junius, by the figure hyperbaton) shews us the coming and cause of the flood,-viz. for the wickedness of those times. And therefore the learned Jews do in their Chaldee Paraphrase translate this text,- "Then in his days the sons of men left off from praying (or became profane, so that they prayed not) in the name of the Lord."

midwives, whose name in, as well as their sex, is feminine. Thus the main intent of the story is directly carried on; viz. to shew, not the multiplying of the Egyptians, but how Jacob's family, that went down into Egypt, came to be a mighty nation, maugre the malice of the tyrant.

2 Chronicles xvi, 1.

Instead of "In the six and thir

tieth year of the reign of Asa, Basha king of Israel came up against Judah, &c." read—" of the kingdom of Asa" &c.: meaning the date of the separation of the kingdom of

Judah from Israel. For if Baasha warred in the 36th year of the reign had been dead and buried ten years. of Asa, he warred after he (Baasha) (Compare 1 Kings xv, 33.) But the time of his invasion was really the sixteenth year of Asa's reign, which was now just thirty-six years after the revolt of the ten tribes.

2 Chronicles xxii, 1, 2.

The common reading is,-" So Ahazia, the son of Jehoram reigned. Forty and two years old was Ahazia when he began to reign, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem his mother's name also was Athaliah, the daughter of Omri," But a more proper reading is,So Ahazia the son of Jehoram king of Judah reigned; (v. 2,) 'whose mother's name was Athaliah 'the daughter of Omri, which Omri was forty-two years when Ahaziah

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reigned, who reigned one year in 'Jerusalem." Thus there is here a rhetorical trajection, frequent in Scripture; as 1 Sam. xx, 16, &c. Ahaziah is a son of forty-two years old, (as in relation to the date of his kingdom of Judah, since it was divided from that of Israel,) though

he were but twenty-two years old, for the date of his life. This is clear from 2 Kings, viii, 26: otherwise he will be made twenty years older than himself, and two years older than his father!

Psalm ii, 7.

"Thou art my son; this day have I brought thee forth"-not, "have begotten thee.”

1. That the Hebrew root commonly signifies to bear, to be born, or to bring forth, we have not only the assurance of Pagnin, who puts parere and parturire as its first and more usual interpretation; and of Mercer, who says, " idem est quod Græcis Tevvav, quod est in lucem edere generaliter;" but we have also infallible examples of the sacred text,-as Gen. iv, 18; xvi, 11; xxix, 34; Deut. xxi, 15; 1 Chron. ii, 46, 48; to which we might add many others.

2. That the Greek word Tεvvaw (by which the Apostle quotes and translates this place twice; viz. Acts xiii, 33, and Heb. i, 5,) also signifies to bear or bring forth, we have also many examples in the sacred text; as Matt. ii, 4; xix, 12; Luke i, 13, 35, 37; xxiii, 29; John iii, 4, 6; ix, 2, 19, 20, 32, &c. The Septuagint also translate this text with the same word γεννάω.

3. The apostle Paul, quoting this place" Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee,"-applies it to the resurrection of Christ, when God brought him forth out of the grave; (Acts xiii, 32, 33.) "We declare unto you (saith Peter) glad tidings; how that the promise which was made unto the fathers, God hath fulfilled the same unto us, their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again; and that as it is written in the second Psalm-Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee."

From what I have said, much light comes in on this text, which before has to me been always very dark.

Psalm xii, 5.

Our ordinary translation is; "For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the Lord; I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him." The last words are to be rectified thus; "I will set him in salvation (or safety;) He (meaning God,) will give breathing or respiration to him."

Consult the Hebrew well. The Septuagint, the Syriac, the Ethiopic and Arabic, all refer it to God's kindness to his oppressed people.

The first thing here to be done, is to separate from the first verse of chapter ix the following clause"Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation"and to annex it to the last verse of the preceding chapter. The next thing is rightly to translate the whole, which will then stand thus:

"And one shall look unto the earth, and behold trouble and dimness, so that he is obscured with affliction, and driven up and down in darkness; for he is not darkened so as to be shut up with it."

The Chaldee paraphrase, and the

ancient Latin of Jerome, distinguished these chapters, as I have done; and I have translated them as you see, with good leave of the Hebrew text. If, on the contrary, they be left to be part and preface to the first verse of chap. ix, they confound the sense thereof; insomuch that they puzzled the Septuagint (though Hebrews,) so that they made their Greek translation pure nonsense. St. Matthew perceiving this, when he quoted verse 1 out of the Septuagint, (see Matt. iv, 16) makes no use of this former clause, but begins with-" The land of Zebulun and Naphtali, &c." As to the meaning, I must leave them to judge that can weigh these things: yet to me it appears, that the Prophet, speaking so much of darkness, might put in He is not darkened so as to be shut up with it," in order to distinguish it from the darkness in Egypt, which so confined the people that they rose not from their place for three days. (Exodus x, 22.) The remainder of verse 1 begins a new prophecy thus :

As in the first time, he made 'vile (or debased) the land of Zebulun ⚫ and the land of Naphtali, so in the latter time he shall make them glorious; viz. the way of the sea beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles." Or it may be read;-"As 'the first time did make vile the land of Zebulun, and the land of Naphtali, so the latter time shall make them glorious, even the way of the sea beyond Jordan, &c." To justify this; first, it is well known to every Hebraist, that signifies to make vile, or to debase; and that 2 signifies to make glorious. What reason then was there, for our translators to translate the first lightly afflicted,' and the second, heavily afflicted?' For though hath the signification of lightness,

of

weight, yet here (as in Piel oft) it signifies weight of glory.

Secondly, the history informs us (2 Kings xv, 29) that it was the sad lot of Galilee, (or of Zebulun and Naphtali two main parts thereof,) to be the first in that calamity which befel their nation by the Assyrians; on account of which calamity, then newly acted, Isaiah comforts them with this prophecy; viz. that in recompence of that heavy disadvantage above the rest of their brethren, they should have the first and chiefest share of the presence and converse of Christ, the Messiah, when he should come in the flesh. For the second verse continues; "The people that walked in darkness (viz. in that darkness of affliction, de'scribed chap. viii, last verse) have seen a great light; they that dwelt in the shadow of death, upon ' them hath the light shined. Thou hast multiplied the nation, and hast increased the joy thereof. [How is this brought to pass?—It 'follows verse 6] For unto us a 'child is born, to us a son is given, ' and the government shall be upon 'his shoulders, &c." St. Matthew uses that portion which he quotes directly in this sense, if you take the full context, beginning chap. iv, 12. And that first clause of verse 3, in which I have left out the word not, is equally consonant with the Hebrew, and more so with the sense. The margin indeed gives it' to him ;' which would then thus read-"Thou hast multiplied the nation and to him increased the joy ;" and if we rather read" to it" (viz. the nation) the sense will be the same.

Matthew xxvii, 9, 10.

Read,- "Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the