Some may think that we ought to read 'gurgitibus miniis, aut lactis vortice torrens,' instead of 'et.' But, unless the best manuscripts deceive us, 'et' is often used in a disjunctive sense, and implies much the same as 'aut;' and likewise que,' where 've' might seem more proper. Of this I gave some examples in the Miscellaneous Observations.] AMONGST the miracles recorded in the acts of the apostles is the casting out of evil spirits. In the New Testament, where any circumstances are added concerning the dæmoniacs, they are generally such as show that there was something præternatural in the distemper; for these disordered persons agreed in one story, and paid homage to Christ and to his apostles: which is not to be expected from madmen ; of whom some would have worshipped and others would have reviled Christ, according to the various humour and behaviour observable in such persons. One reason for which the divine providence should suffer evil spirits to exert their malignant powers so much at that time, might be to give a check to sadduceism amongst the Jews, and to Epicurean atheism amongst the Gentiles, and to remove in some measure these two great impediments to the reception of the gospel. THE first miracle after the ascension of Christ, namely the gift of tongues, was of singular and extraordinary service to christianity. It increased the number of believers at Jerusalem, and engaged the admiration and favour of the people so much, that the enemies of Christ could not accomplish their designs against the disciples, and it served to convey the gospel to distant regions. It has been said that the gift of tongues continued for a considerable time to be absolutely necessary for the spreading of christianity but it is to be observed that the scriptures never say so. We may therefore judge for ourselves how far it was needful. Now at the time of Pentecost there was a great resort of Jews and proselytes from various and remote countries. The gift of tongues conferred upon the disciples served to convince and convert many of these persons, and these persons served to carry christianity with them to their several homes. Afterwards the Æthiopian eunuch, Cornelius the Roman centurion, Sergius Paulus the proconsul, Dionysius the areopagite, and many others were converted. By these persons, and by the travels of some of the apostles and of their disciples, christianity was spread in the Roman empire and in the East; and then the Greek language, together with human industry in learning other tongues, might be sufficient to convey the gospel as far and as soon as providence intended. Apollonius Tyaneus, as Philostratus k relates, pretended to understand all languages without having learned them. If Philostratus may be credited in this, it is probable that Apollonius, knowing that the christians claimed this gift, took the same honour to himself. He flourished in the times of Nero and of Domitian; and it is to be supposed that he could speak a little of several tongues, for he was a man of parts and a strolling vagabond. Philostratus also assures us, that, when the mother of Apollonius was in labour, the swans came to attend and assist her; for which he produces no voucher, says Eusebius in Hierocl. p. 517. Now Philostratus, or whosoever was the author of this pretty story, stole the thought from Callimachus: ..... Κύκνοι δὲ Θεοῦ μέλποντες ἀοιδοὶ Hymn. in Delum, 249. where these poetical birds perform the same office to Latona. Clemens Alexandrinus cites Plato as saying that the gods or dæmons had the use of language, and that it ap peared from the discourses of dæmoniacs, since in those possessions it was not the man himself, but the dæmon in him who spake by the man's voice. Ὁ Πλάτων δὲ καὶ τοῖς Θεοῖς διάλεκτον απονέμει τινά· μάλιστα μὲν ἀπὸ τῶν ὀνειράτων τεκμαιρόμενος καὶ τῶν χρησμῶν· ἄλλως δὲ, καὶ ἀπὸ τῶν δαιμονώντων, οἱ τὴν αὐτῶν οὐ φθέγγονται φωνὴν οὐδὲ διάλεκτον, ἀλλὰ τὴν τῶν ὑπεισι όντων δαιμόνων. Strom. 1. p. 405. Οxon. k Vit. Apoll. p. 25. ed. Par. or Euseb. contr. Hier. p. 517. edit. I may have overlooked it, but I never could find this place in Plato. There is something a little like it in Porphyry, where Apollo says of himself, Αυλοῦ δ ̓ ἐκ βροτέοιο φίλην ἐτεκνώσατο φωνήν Jucundam expirat mortali e gutture vocem. ~ ΤΟ per On which the philosopher observes, Πνεῦμα γὰρ τὸ κατιὸν, καὶ ἀπόῤῥοια ἐκ τῆς ἐπουρανίου δυνάμεως, εἰς ὀργανικὸν σῶμα καὶ ἔμψυχον εισελθοῦσα, βάσει χρωμένη τῇ ψυχῇ διὰ τοῦ σώματος, ὡς ὀργάνου, φωνὴν ἀποδίδωσιν. Spiritus enim e loco superiore delapsus, illaque adeo particula, quæ cœlesti virtute in corpus suis instructum facultatibus animatumque defluxit, animum veluti basim aliquam sortita, vocem per corpus veluti quoddam instrumentum edit.' Apud Euseb. Præp. Ev. v. 8. These daμov@vtes, of whom the philosophers speak, were persons inspired, or supposed to be inspired, by Apollo, Cybele, or other dæmons. In later times the speaking of new languages has been reckoned one of the proofs of being possessed with a dæmon. See Bayle's Dict. Gran dier, and Michael Psellus De operat. dæmonum, and some instances collected by Cudworth, Intell. Syst. p. 704, 5. That from Fernelius is mentioned by Le Clerc, in his extracts from Cudworth, Bibl. Chois. v. p. 109. He has made a small mistake when he says, 'Un mélancholique que les médecins avoient traité en vain, et qui ne savoit ni Grec ni Latin, se mit à parler ces deux langues.' Fernelius only says that the young gentleman did not understand Greek. To learn a foreign language so far as to understand it when we read or hear it, is a skill which is not to be acquired without much time and pains. To speak it readily, and pronounce it rightly, is still more difficult: it is what many persons can never accomplish, though they have all the proper helps, as we may see every day; nor can any study and application acquire this habit, unless there be an opportunity of conversing frequently with those whose tongue it is. If the apostles on the day of Pentecost had expressed 1 Φίλην φωνήν may be translated ( suam vocem.' ÈTEXYwσato fors. · ἐτεχνώσατο, vel ἐτεχνήσατο, vel τεχνήσατο. themselves improperly, or with a bad accent, as most people do when they speak a living language which is not natural to them, the hearers, who at that time were not converted to Christianity, would have suspected some fraud, would have taken notice of such faults m, and censured them; which since they did not, it is to be supposed that they had nothing of that kind to object. WITHIN forty years after the resurrection of Christ came on the destruction of Jerusalem, a most important event, upon which the credit and the fate of Christianity depended. Christ had foretold it so expressly, that, if he had failed, his religion could not have supported itself. But his predictions were exactly accomplished, and proved him to be a true prophet. Christ fixed the time also, saying that the days were at hand, and would come before that generation should pass away, and whilst the daughters of Jerusalem, or their children, should be living. The completion of Christ's predictions has been fully showed by many writers, particularly by Whitby. To him I refer the reader, on Matt. xxiv., and shall here insert in the notes some remarks on this part of the subject, which Dr. Pearce the bishop of Bangor was so kind as to communicate"; observing only that 'Christ foretold, As the Jews did to Peter, when they said to him, Thou art a Galilæan, and thy speech bewrayeth thee.' "Our Saviour, foretelling the destruction of Jerusalem, applies to the Jews in a prophetic sense this proverbial saying, Wherescever the car. case is, there will the eagles be gathered together.' Matt. xxiv. 28. The Jewish writers had this maxim among them, that wicked men while they live are to be reckoned amongst the dead. See Drusius on Matt. iv. 4. and viii. 22. See also Luke xv. 32. Ephes. ii. 1. Tim i. v. 6. But wicked men are spoken of in scripture under this figure with still greater propriety, if for their crimes they were devoted to death, and condemned to it by a divine or human sentence. Gen. xx. 3. By the word 'carcase,' Christ means the Jewish nation, which was morally and judicially dead, and whose destruction was pronounced in the decrees of heaven. In Eusebius E. H. ii. 23. τέθνηκε is explained by Θεῷ τέθνηκε· ἀπέβη γὰρ πονηρὸς καὶ ἐξώλης καὶ τὸ κεφάλαιον ληστής. Νυνὶ δὲ δημαγωγεῖ ἐν τοῖς ανω νεκροῖς. Aristoph. Ran. act. i. sc. 7. in choro. See L. Capell. and Grotius on Matt. viii. 22.who says, Nexgol vocan 1. The total destruction of the city. 2. Of the temple. 3. The coming of false Christs and false prophets, magicians and sorcerers, leading the people to the deserts. 4. Famines. 5. Pestilences. 6. Earthquakes. 7. Fearful sights and great signs from heaven. 8. The persecution of the apostles. 9. The apostasy of some christians. 10. A preservation of the faithful. 11. The spreading of the gospel through the Roman world. 12. The Roman standards defiling the holy place. 13. The city encompassed with armies, walls, and trenches. 14. The retiring of the christians to the mountains. 15. The greatest tribulation that ever was known. 16. The time when these things should happen. 17. The comparative happiness of the barren women, when a mother killed and ate her own child. 18. Wars and rumours of wars, nation rising against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. 19. The sea and the waves roaring. tur homines a vera disciplina, quæ animi vita est, alieni. dìò xaì év rỹ (ait Clemens Alex. Strom. v.) βαρβάρω φιλοσοφίᾳ νεκροὺς καλουσι τοὺς ἐκπε σόντας τῶν δογμάτων, καὶ καθυποτάξαντας τὸν νοῦν τοῖς πάθεσι ψυχικοῖς. Hausit quoque hæc, ut alia, ab Orientis philosophia Pythagoras, Tas Twv Ἰουδαίων δόξας μιμούμενος, ut de eo scribit Hermippus : siquidem καὶ πρὸς τοὺς Εβραίους ἀφίκετο, ut de eo ex Diogene scribit Malchus ; unde mos ortus ut his qui cœtu Pythagoreorum essent ejecti, cenotaphia struerentur, quod Hipparcho cuidam factum legimus, &c. Under the metaphor of eagles, which fly swiftly and seize upon their prey violently, conquerors with their armies are frequently spoken of in scripture. Jeremiah Lament. iv. 19. says, Our persecutors are swifter than eagles;' and Hosea viii. 1. says of the king of Assyria, He shall come as an eagle against the house of the Lord, because they have transgressed his covenant.' Ezekiel xvii. 3. pronounces a parable under the same figure: Thus saith the Lord: A great eagle, with great wings full of feathers, came unto Lebanon, and took the highest branch of the cedar;' which the prophet thus explains ver. 12. Behold the king of Babylon is come to Jerusalem, and hath taken the king thereof.' Nor must it be forgotten, that when Moses, Deut. xxviii. 49, &c. threatens the Jews with the destruction of their nation, if they would not |