"WHEN THE SON OF MAN cometh in his glory, and all the holy angels with him; then shall He sit on the throne of his glory; and all the nations shall be collected before him and he shall separate them from each other, as a shepherd separateth the sheep from the goats: and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on his left. "Then shall THE KING say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of MY FATHER, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, &c. "Then shall He say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels, &c. "And these shall go away into everlasting punishment; but the righteous into everlasting life." It is remarkable, that Wakefield, in his New Testament travestied, unwittingly bears record to the proper divinity of JESUS CHRIST retaining the common reading, Rev. xx. 11. ενωπίδη 88—and rendering, with our public translation, "Before God." Verses 8-9. 66 Myrrh, aloes, and cassia, [perfume] all thy garments, [taken] out of the ivory cabinets; wherewith, among thy treasures, kings daughters gratify thee." Various and perplexing are the queries of translators and commentators, ancient and modern, respecting the meaning of this obscure and elliptical passage in the original: I have given the meaning that seems to suit it, but with the letter, and with the context, as descriptive of the magnificence of his dress, and the quality of his attendants, the word , (Hicheli,) I render with Durell," Wardrobes, or Cabinets," who ingeniously supposes, with others, that it was the root of the Greek word, x, frequently used in that sense by Homer. Odyss. xxi. 51. Ηδ' αρ' εφ' υψηλης σανίδας 5η, ενδαδε χηλοι, "She then went up to the lofty floor, where the cabinets See also Odyss. ii. 339; xiii. 10-68; and ibid. xvi. 224228-254; and Uripides uses dopos, for a wardrobe or cabinet: εκ δ' ελεβα κεδρίνων δόμων Εστητα, κόσμοντ', ευπρεπώς ήσκησατο. "And taking out of the cedar cabinet her dress Vol. III. Churchm. Mag. Sup. 3 E Verse Verse 9. At thy right hand is placed the Queen," &c. As CHRIST is seated" at the right hand of GoD," Ps. cx. 1. so "THE CHURCH," or congregation of the faithful, his mystical spouse, is placed at his right hand also, like "the sheep," at the last or general judgment, Matt. xxv. 33. And accordingly the same imagery is pursued in the Apocalypse, xxi. 2-9. when "the New Jerusalem, the Lamb's wife," is represented in vision, coming down from God out of heaven; as a bride adorned for her husband.— Hence, in the Prophetic Scriptures, the idolatry of the Jews and Israelites is so often represented under the symbol of adultery; and that OUR LORD styles his profligate and apostate countrymen, " a wicked and adulterous generation!" Verse 11, "For He is THY LORD, and worship thou Him."— To distinguish the religious worship, to be paid by the Queen, or "the Church" to CHRIST, from the ordinary adoration, or homage paid to earthly kings by their queens. (See the beautiful description of Queen Esther coming into the presence of Achasuerus, or Artaxerxes Longimanus, to intercede for his people, in the Apocryphal Book of Esther xv. 1—16.) Our old liturgical translation renders "For He is THY LORD (GOD), and worship thou HIM." As more correctly printed in the older editions; the word GOD, included in the parenthesis, being intended as explanatory, to distinguish the spiritual LORD, meant from the mere earthly lord or husband. 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. Ver. 13. "THE KING'S DAUGHTER is all glorious in his presence," &c. By "the 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 ", Panimo, signifies "His presence," Psa. i. 11-7. so by analogy, , Panimah, should signify "her presence," rather than "inwardly," or "within." The description evidently referring to her external appearance, 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, This is addressed to THE KING, not to the Queen, as is evident from the context. "His Fathers," according to the flesh, were the Patriarchs and Prophets of former dispensations. "His Sons," the Apostles 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 regene ration, 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 are the prayers of the Saints,) and they sing a NEW HYMN, saying, Worthy art thou to take the book, and to open its seals; 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." And at a subsequent period of the vision, Rev. xx. 4. representing the first resurrection, or "resurrection of the just," John "saw Thomas, 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. 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 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 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 fourand-twenty thrones, judging the people; 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 Apocalypse has received no more confirmation than it kad be ore, and I must leave the decision of this important question to every man's private judgment" Of such miserable and uncomfortable Critics, we may truly say, that "they weary themselves to find the door,"-" ever learning, and never able to arrive at an intimate knowledge of THE TRUTH.' (Επίγνωσιν αλήθειας.) Gen. xix. 11. 2 Tim. iii. 7. And unwittingly, if not insidiously, undermining the authenticity and integrity of HOLY WRIT, in order to shake its credibility. But vain and idle is all this manufacturing of external evidences, while the internal is "founded on a rock," which will brave the assaults of its open or disguised foes, and the more ruinous accommodations or concessions of rash and indiscreet friends, though of great name. To elucidate the internal evidence, by CORRECTER TRANSL TION and COMPARATIVE CRITICISM, has been the leading object of the INSPECTOR's researches; and, he trusts, not altogether without success. At a future period, of more leisure, he may be induced, perhaps, to begin a new Series of Communications, in vindication of the Originality and established Order of the FOUR GOSPELS, from the allegations of Michaelis and Marsh, should the result of his present labour encourage him to proceed *; being fully convinced himself, and wishing to impart that conviction to others, that "THE TESTIFYING OF JESUS IS THE DRIFT OF PROPHECY." "TO HIM, GIVE ALL THE PROPHETS WITNESS:" both of the OLD and NEW TESTAMENT. I shall close this work with an admirable EPILOGUE to the PROPHETIC PSALMS, furnished by THE LAST WORDS OF DAVID. 2 Sam. xxiii. 1-7. "David, the Son of Jesse, saith, Even the Person highly exalted, saith, The anointed of the GOD OF JACOB, And the sweet Psalmist of ISRAEL; THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD speaketh in Me, And his word is on my tongue; The GOD OF ISRAEL hath said, The ROCK OF ISRAEL hath spoken touching Me. As the morning light shall A SUN arise, * We shall receive them with pleasure. [As] EDIT. [As] the tender herb, after a shower, -For [shall] not my House [be] so, with God? Because [HE] is all my salvation, and all my desire. All they [shall be consumed] like prickly thorns: But the Man who shall touch them, Shall be armed with iron, and the staff of a spear; INSPECTOR. P. S. I am really concerned to find from the last number of the Orthodox Churchiman's Magazine, December, p. 343, that Inspectors censures have, unintentionally, hurt or wounded the feelings of Amicus, or any other respectable friends of the late professor Blaney; the fond partiality of whose friendship has led them rather to over-rate and aggravate the censure; as if" stamping his character with the mark of Heterodoxy; classing his name with those of Priestly and Paine; and delaying this attack till doctor Blaney is no more:"-and I submit to their candour the following justification, without delay, as I prize their good opinion, and therefore wish to remove, as soon as possible, any unfavourable impression from their minds. 1. The first charge, I acknowledge and avow; as limited to the particular opinions in question; and in this, I am happy to produce the concurrence of his friends themselves; "allowing him to be wrong in his translations of the two passages (Jer. xxiii. 6 and xxxi. 22) mentioned by Inspector," (vol. ii. p. 382, and vol. iii. p. 138). And surely they must allow his notes thereon to be still more reprehensible; as impeaching the evidence of these two most important prophecies, to the divinity and miraculous conception of JESUS CHRIST; especially of the former, which, by a fundamental error, he misrepresents as a doctrine, which draws its decisive proofs from the NEW TESTAMENT only." And that the Professor himself had some presentiment of the censure he was likely to incur, is evident from his apology; “I doubt not but some persons will be offended with me," &c. and again, "I cannot, at any rate, concur in opinion with those commentators, &c. 2. But where, in the latter case, he decides so peremptorily: "These words cannot be brought by any construction to imply such a thing [as the miraculous conception];"-whereas, in truth, they can imply nothing else: I will ask, could even Amicus or his dearest friends, have refrained from a censure milder than Inspector's?" Such incorrigible prejudice against the miraculous con ception |