tioned 2 Tim. iv, 1; when it will indeed be toolate 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

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 ; &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,

■ Dan, xii.

We might have cast out the (and) in verse 5 as redundant (a common thing in the Hebrew ;) but, we have preserved it to signify ‘and that, or ' whilst; it being capable of either expression. As for rendering every by any, he that can but turn in any Hebrew Lexicon to כל in כלל will presently be satisfied: and as for changing the word before, into not yet, he that doubts will likewise equally be satisfied by turning to

Genesis iv, 26.

Our Bibles have it, "Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord;" but the right reading is, "Then began men profanely to call upon the name of the Lord," or "Then began profaneness, in calling (or, instead of calling) on the name of the Lord."

My reasons for thus translating are, (1) because the word חלל (the root of הוחל( when applied to sacred things, more commonly signifies to profane, pollute or corrupt. When it is applied to other things, it signifies to begin. (2.) Before this men began to call

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 sorrowfulness 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."

Exodus i, 21.

Read-" And it was because the midwives feared God, that he made them (the sons of Israel) families."

That is, by means of the midwives fearing God, and so sparing the lives of the male children of the Hebrews, God nourished and preserved them unto the just stature of manhood, and to multiply into families. By this translation the true grammar of the Hebrew text is preserved: in which להם them, is in the masculine gender, and therefore well agrees with הילרים men-children, v. 18; but ill with the

midwives, whose name המילרתas 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 thirtieth 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 of Asa, he warred after he (Baasha) had been dead and buried ten years. (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 reign'ed. Forty and two years old was • Ahazia when he began to reign, ' and he reigned one year in Jeru'salem: 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 ' 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."

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.

Isaiah viii, 22 and ix, 1.

(viii, 22.) "And they shall look un'to the earth; and behold trouble and • darkness, dimness of anguish; and they shall be driven to darkness. (ix, 1.) Nevertheless the dim'ness shall not be such as was in her ' vexation, when at the first he light

the land of Naphtali, and afterward ' did more grievously afflict her by 'the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, ' in Galilee of the nations."

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, distinguish ed 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 :

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"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 glo'rious; viz. the way of the sea be

yond Jordan, Galilee of the Gen' tiles." Or it may be read; -" As 'the first time did make vile the land ' of Zebulun, and the land of Naph' tali, 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 הקל signifies to make vile, or to debase; and that הכביר signifies to make glorious. What reason then was there, for our translators to translate the first

it means of light worth. And also הכביר hath the signification 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

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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