Apocryphal Book of Esther, xv. 1-16.) Our old liturgical translation renders

"For He is THY LORD (GOD), and worship thor “HIM."

As more correctly printed in the older ediditions; the word GOD, included in the parenthesis, being intended as explanatory, to distinguish the spiritual LORD, meant from the mere earthly lord or husband.

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Ver. 12. "And the DAUGHTER OF TYRE [shall come] with a gift." This intimates the conversion of the Gentiles to CHRIST; analogous to "the Kings of Seba and Saba "shall bring gifts." Ps. lxxii. 10.

Verse 13. "THE KING'S DAUGHTER is "all glorious in his presence," &c. By "the

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King's daughter" is meant "the Queen.' To a more minute description of the splendour and magnificence of whose person and dress, the Psalmist returns; and as 1, Panimo, signifies "His Presence," Ps. i. 11-7, so by analogy, 5, Panimah, should signify "her presence," rather than

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inwardly," or "within." The description evidently referring to her external appear

ance

ance, and the pompousness of her procession to be introduced to the KING.

Ver. 14. Instead of THY FATHERS, shall be THY SONS;

Thou shalt make them PRINCES in all the earth:

They shall record thy name in every succeeding generation,

Therefore shall people praise thee for ever

more.

This is addressed to THE KING, not to the "His

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Queen, as is evident from the context. "Fathers," according to the flesh, were the Patriarchs and Prophets of former dispensations. "His Sons," the Apostles and Evangelists of the new- Wherever THE MESSIAH, or THE SON OF MAN," is styled, "Father of the Age to come," Isa. ix. 6. And he promised his Apostles, "that “in the regeneration they should sit on twelve "thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel," Matt. xix. 28. And accordingly in the Apocalypse, v. 8, "when THE LAMB,

who alone was found worthy to open the "Book of Life, had taken it out of the hand "of THE MOST HIGHEST," then, by a most sublime and magnificent description,

"The four living creatures, and the four "and twenty elders fell [prostrate] before "THE LAMB; having each a harp, and golden phials filled with perfumes, (which 66 are the

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prayers of the Saints,) and they sing a NEW HYMN, saying, Worthy art "thou to take the book, and to open its seals;

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for THOU WAST SACRIFICED, and didst purchase us unto GOD in thy blood, out of

every tribe, and tongue, and people, and "nation; and didst make us KINGS and "PRIESTS unto OUR GOD: And we shall "REIGN upon the earth."

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And at a subsequent period of the vision, Rev. xx. 4, representing the first resurrection, or resurrection of the just," John “saw “Thrones, and [certain persons] sat thereon, " and judgment was given unto them ;" and [he saw] the souls of the martyrs, &c. and they lived and reigned with CHRIST a "thousand years."

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The harmony of sentiment and arrangement subsisting throughout between this divine hymn and the Apocalypse, (which is surely its finest and noblest comment,) may serve to establish the divine authority of both,

as

as dictated by ONE AND THE SAME SPIRIT, more concisely to the earlier, more explicitly to the later prophet; and also to repel that strange misconception and perversion of the external evidence, adduced by the sceptical Michaelis, to render the authenticity of the Apocalypse doubtful; which originally, in the primitive Church, was the least questioned or disputed of any of the Canonical Books; being referred to, or cited expressly as the work of the Apostle John, by Justin Martyr, about A. D. 140; by the Martyrs at Lyons, and Irenæus, A. D. 178, who was acquainted with Polycarp, the disciple of John, and often quotes this book, as "the Revelation of John, the disciple of “the LORD.” And in one place he says, “It was seen, not long ago, but almost in our

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age, at the end of the reign of Domitian." Add to these, the testimony of Theophilus, Bishop of Antioch, A. D. 181; of Clemens Alexandrinus, A. D. 194, who cites it several times; and once in particular thus: "Such "a person, though not honoured with the "first seat here on earth, shall sit upon the four-and-twenty thrones, judging the peo·ple ;

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z 3

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ple; as John says, in the Revelation." Of Tertullian, about A. D. 200; who asserts, "though Marcion rejects the Revelation, the "succession of bishops traced to the origin, "will assure us that John is the author."

After all this luminous testimony of the ́earliest witnesses, and much more, cited by Lardner and Michaelis himself, what a deplorable instance of an "undiscerning mind” is furnished by the latter in the sceptical conclusion of his Introduction to the New Testament!

"I confess, that during this inquiry, my "belief in the divine authority of the Apo

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calypse has received no more confirmation

than it had before, and I must leave the "decision of this important question to

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every man's private judgment.”

Of such miserable and uncomfortable Critics, we may truly say, that "they weary "themselves to find the door,"-" ever learn"ing, and never able to arrive at an intimate

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knowledge of The Truth."—(Eziyvwḍiv arbeias) Gen. xix. 11, 2 Tim. iii. 7. And unwittingly, if not insidiously, undermining the authenticity and integrity of HOLY