(ch. xiii. 25, 26.) "Faith shall wax strong, and the work shall follow," (ch. vii. 34, 35, comp. Rev. xiv. 13.) "And every one that shall be saved, and shall be able to escape by his works, and by faith, whereby ye have believed, shall be preserved from the said perils, and shall see my salvation in my land, and within my borders; for I have sanctified them from the beginning. Then shall they be in a pitiful case, which now have abused my ways; and they that have cast them away despitefully, shall dwell in torments," (ch. ix. 7-10.) "Let not the sinner say that he hath not sinned; for God shall burn coals of fire upon his head, which saith before the Lord God and his glory, I have not sinned," (ch. xvi. 53.) "Yea, and the spirit of Almighty God, which made all things, and searcheth out all hidden things in the secrets of the earth, surely he knoweth your inventions, and what ye think in your hearts, even them that sin, and would hide their sin," (ch. xvi. 62, 63.)

I come now to my third general head, which is, the consequences of any determinate judgment whatever upon the book in question.

First then, if the book be ascribed to Esdras, we acquire not only a wonderful evidence for the truth of Christianity, which no man can gainsay, but a most luminous view of the doctrines of Christianity. Secondly, if the book be ascribed to an impostor in the second century, it still exhibits a noble and important description of Christianity, and ascertains the sentiments of the primitive church in many articles of our faith.

It likewise points out in what manner the primitive Christians explained the prophecies of Scripture, and hands down to us many remarkable opinions and traditions of the first ages of Christianity. And yet obvious as this conclusion appears, the book seems as yet to have been made of no use at all, and has lost every place among authorities, because it claimed the highest. It is my earnest wish that this may no longer be the case, but that the book may find its true value, by being adequately examined; to facilitate which object, rather than to defend its authenticity, was the original object of my remarks.

I am, Sir,

Your obedient humble servant,
JUVENIS.

Vol. XI. Churchm. Mag. for Oct. 1806. Nn SCRIP

FOR THE ORTHODOX CHURCHMAN'S MAGAZINE.

SCRIPTURAL ILLUSTRATIONS.

EZEKIEL Xxvi. 4, 5.

And they shall destroy the walls of Tyrus, and break down her towers: I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock. It shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea; for I have spoken it, saith the Lord God, and it shall become a spoil to the nations.

VERY

ERY striking and instructive are the accounts of this once flourishing and famous city, as given by two modern travellers.

28.

"This city, (Tyre) standing in the sea upon a peninsula, promises at a distance something very magnificent. But when you come to it, you find no similitude of that glory, for which it was so renowned in ancient times, and which the prophet Ezekiel describes, chap. 26, 27, On the north side it has an old Turkish ungarrisoned castle; besides which, you see nothing here, but a mere Babel of broken walls, pillars, vaults, &c. there being not so much as one entire house left. Its present inhabitants are only a few poor wretches, harbouring themselves in the vaults, and subsisting chiefly upon fishing; who seem to be preserved in this place by Divine Providence, as a visible argument, how God has fulfilled his word concerning Tyre, viz. "That it should be as the top of a rock, a place for fishers to dry their nets on."

MAUNDRELL'S Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem, p. 49, ed. 1740.

Passing by Tyre, from curiosity only, I came to be a mournful witness of the truth of that prophecy, that Tyre, the queen of nations, should be a rock for fishers to dry their nets on, Ezek. xxvi. 5. Two wretched fishermen, with miserable nets, having just given over their occupation with very little success, I engaged them, at the expense of their nets, to drag in those places where they said shell-fish might be caught, in hopes to have brought

out

out one of the famous purple-fish. I did not succeed, but in this, I was, I believe, as lucky as the old fishers had ever been. The purple-fish at Tyre, seems to have been only a concealment of their knowlege of cochineal; as had they depended on the fish for their dye, if the whole city of Tyre applied to nothing else but fishing, they would not have coloured twenty yards of cloth in a year. Much fatigued, but satisfied beyond measure with what I had seen, I arrived in perfect health, and in the gayest humour possible, at the hospitable mansion of M. Clerambaut at Ŝidon.”

BRUCE'S TRAVELS, p. 59,
Introduction.

MARK XV. 23.

65

And they gave him wine mingled with myrrh. Όενος εσμυρνησμένος. Myrrh is represented by Galen and Dioscorides as bitter and narcotic; it was usually given to malefactors, in order to make them less sensible of pain during execution. Apuleius, Asin. Aur. 1. 10, says, "The criminal fortified by a beverage of myrrh, which he had before taken, withstood not only the blows, but fire itself." Frankincense was also used for the same purpose, as we learn from the Talmud. When any one is carried to execution, they give him a grain of frankincense with wine, in order to take away his sense of pain." Sanh. c. 6. f. 143. Messac. Semachoth, 2. 1. St. Matthew says in this place, it was vinegar mixed with gall, which when he had tasted, he refused to drink. Commentatators have supposed that by gall is meant any bitterness whatsoever, and therefore that the bitter of myrrh may be here implied. Or they might carry their cruelty so far, as instead of the usual potion of myrrhed wine, to offer him the nauseous draught of vinegar and gall; as is said afterwards, " they offered unto him vinegar, mocking him."

ACTS xxiii. 5,

Then said Paul, I wist not, brethren, that he was the high priest: for it is written, thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people.

Commentators have been greatly divided with respect

to the precise signification of this passage. Some are of opinion that St. Paul did not really know the High Priest; and therefore was not liable to the censure passed upon him, of having been guilty of reviling a person of so high a character. In confirmation of this, they say that the High Priest did not always appear in his pontifical habit; and that the apostle might have been absent from Jerusalem when Ananias was elevated to that dignity. This indeed appears probable, considering the frequent and sudden changes in the priestly office at that period. But allowing this, the sense thus given to the passage is open to great objections; for it is plainly at variance with the context, as at the beginning of the chapter, St. Paul is expressly said to have fixed his eyes on the council when he began his apology; and in the third verse he addressed his discourse particularly to Ananias, appealing to him as his judge and if the conjecture of the learned Selden be admitted, that Ananias sat as president in this council (though that place legally belonged to Rabbi Gamaliel, son of Simeon) his place there must have sufficiently distinguished him. Besides, how could St. Paul have made that prudent division in the council, which is mentioned in the 6th verse, unless he had been acquainted with most of the persons who composed it. To this it may be added, that he had lived a considerable time at Jerusalem, had been a disciple of Gamaliel, the president of the council, and had received a commission to persecute the Christians from the Sanhedrim.

Le Clerc advances a singular conjecture, bold and ingenious, no doubt, but, like most of his conjectural criticisms, more free than satisfactory. He supposes that St. Paul, when the High Priest commanded him to be struck, was looking another way, so as not to have perceived who it was that gave the order. Now admitting this conjecture, it yet cannot be denied, but that the apostle must know that the person whom he addressed was a member of the Sanhedrim; and consequently his legal judge.

They who think that St. Paul alleged this as a vindication of himself, observe, that the word Edew, from whence de is derived, often signifies to "acknowlege, account, or esteem," as well as simply to know: so that St. Paul's meaning, according to them, is, that he did not acknowlege Ananias for a lawful High Priest; either because he had usurped that office, or had no legal right to it. But

though

though this be granted to have been the case with regard to Ananias, yet the opinion of Doddridge appears to be just," that Paul would not have entered on so curious and so dangerous a question, as the justice of Ananias's accession to that office." And though he might not acknowlege him to be a legal High Priest, he might certainly consider him as a member of the Sanhedrim; and so far, therefore, as his legal judge.

Some learned men have endeavoured to vindicate the apostle, by considering these words as a prediction. This opinion has been maintained by Biscoe in his Boyle's Lectures, Dr. Doddridge, and, as it should seem, partly by Whitby. Grotius also imagines that this was the hidden meaning of St. Paul, though he does not allow that it was uttered as a prophecy. Indeed it is not probable that the apostle would appeal to such an extraordinary impulse, as that of a prophetic spirit, on this occasion; when he must be sensible that such a conduct would be more likely to irritate, than to convince his adversaries.

Another opinion, advanced by Bishop Sanderson, Limborch, and Episcopius, is, that St. Paul intended to excuse, and not to vindicate his conduct on this occasion. This notion is grounded on a different signification of the original word day, which in our version is rendered "I wist not," but may be as well translated, "I was not aware," or "I did not consider;" and that it may be thus translated, see Mat. xx. 22. Luke ix. 55. St. Paul, we may suppose being somewhat incensed at the injurious treatment which he had received from the High Priest, was hurried on to use such harsh terms as he could not entirely justify. He acknowleges, therefore, that he had been too hasty, and had not considered, as he ought, the reverence due to the office of High Priest. This opinion seems to be the best, as it is attended with less difficulty than the others: nor does it at all detract from the character of the apostle, whose readiness to apologize for a hasty expression shews the nobleness of his mind.

ARCHBISHOP