W^VW*"'' ^^^sTsSO^.E? M8 1836 Murray, Edward, 1798-1852 Enoch restitutus 7^ ENOCH RESTITUTUS. LONDON : GILBERT & RIVINCTON, PHlNTKItS, ST. JOHK'k taUAKE. 3>ib/e. • 0-T f\pocryj^ha ■ tingii^h i-i«i.>^ tnocK ENOCH RESTITUTUS; OR, AN ATTEMPT TO SEPARATE FROM THE BOOKS OF ENOCH THE BOOK QUOTED BY ST. JUDE ; ALSO, A COMPARISON OF THE CHRONOLOGY OF ENOCH WITH THE HEBREW COMPUTATION, AND WITH THE PERIODS MENTIONED IN THE BOOK OF DANIEL AND IN THE APOCALYPSE. BY THI'. REV. EDWARD MURRAY, VICAR OF STINSFORD, AND CHAPLAIN TO THE BISHOP OK ROCHESTKR. LONDON: PRINTED FOR J. G. & F. RIVINGTON, ST. PAUL'S CHURCH YARD, AND WATERLOO PLACE, FALL MALL. 183fi. PREFACE. • There are at present in Europe three manu- scripts containing* the " Book of Enoch," which have been translated by the Archbishop of Cashel. They are written in the ancient Ethiopic or Geez character, and were all brought to Europe by Mr. Bruce, on his return from Abyssinia. One of them was presented by him to the Bodleian library, another to the library at Paris, and the third still remains among the manu- scripts collected during his travels, which are now in the possession of his family. The following observations relate solely to the translation of the Archbishop of Cashel, which was made from the manuscript preserved in the Bodleian library, with the aid of collations from the Paris manuscript also. CONTENTS. INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION. CHAPTER I. PAGE Internal Evidence of the Combination of a more ancient Book, with the Apocryphal Books of Enoch . . . 1 CHAPTER II. External Evidence of the Existence of these Books prior to the Christian ^ra 105 The ancient Book of Enoch, with the parallel Passages of Scripture I Table of Reference to the Book of Enoch, as translated by the Archbishop of Cashel 88 Vlll CONTENTS. DISSERTATION. CHAPTER I. PAGE The Agreement of the Chronology of Enoch with that of the Hebrew Computation 1 CHAPTER II. The Coincidences of the Periods of the Prophecy of Enoch with the numbers of Daniel and St. John ... 77 Table of Numerical and Chronological Coincidences, derived from the Book of Daniel, and from the Apocalypse 93 INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION. Some years have now elapsed since the Book of Enoch translated by the profoundly learned Archbishop of Cashel, again became known to the world, after a lapse of at least fifteen hundred years, during which, even the fact that such a book had ever existed, was at length disbelieved. We owe to the celebrated Bruce the recovery of this ancient record, which however might still have remained unnoticed or unvalued, had it not been rescued from obscurity, by one who has added to his knowledge of a language so rarely acquired, not only the patience necessary for so tedious an undertaking, but the judgment and caution, without which the accuracy or fidelity of a version made under such difficult circumstances, might have been questioned. But no such doubt can exist in the mind of any B one who observes the care and discrimination which are displayed in every criticism relating to the choice of words made by the translator, in cases of doubtful signification : and it requires little knowledge of the original language, to convince us that all which learning, united with caution and fidelity can accomplish, has already been done. The reader is referred to the preliminary dis- sertation prefixed to the Archbishop's translation, for the various arguments whereby the priority of the book of Enoch to the Christian aera is fully established : and the various authorities which are there given in detail, will convince the enquirer that the same book which anciently existed is now recovered. The Archbishop has in one instance only, transposed any part of the book ; the places which he has thus amended manifestly containing por- tions of the same passage, separated from one another by some accident of transcription, or from some other fortuitous cause. He has also remarked that "the different por- tions of the book may have been written at dif- ferent periods." He has not however applied this principle to any examination of the work at large. If there were cause to suppose that the book is now in its original order, I should certainly have deemed it beyond the province of criticism to reason upon the transitions which might occur in it, or to seek to amend the connexion of the several parts, by conjecture. But having been convinced that the fact is otherwise, by finding in the Apocryphal " testa- ments of the twelve Patriarchs," portions of the book which were quoted as early as the second century, but which are not now to be found in it, I have thought myself justified in assuming, that as the book has already undergone alteration, the connexion of its various parts, and the difference of the subjects which are treated of, may rightly be taken as guides in an attempt to restore at least some part of the original order. Since the application of this principle has, as I imagine, shewn that the degree of authority due to one part differs widely from that which can be given to others ; I have endeavoured to ex- hibit in a connected form that part which I judge to be the ancient book quoted by St. Jude : merely taking such notice of the more modern and re- jected parts as may be sufficient to shew that they are not to be thrown aside as additions casually made to the more ancient work, but that they belong to books composed on other subjects, and that they may be so arranged as to form among themselves connected -'and con- sistent writings. As to the probability that this book is not in all parts of equal authority, it is remarkable, that the shrewd Grotius formed this opinion, from the sight of those few fragments, which were known in the form of quotations, before the entire book was discovered. " Credo initio, librum fuisse exiguum, sed cum tempore, quemque ea quae voluit ei addidisse, ut in libris illis abstrusioribus factum est saepe."* Bearing in mind that the Archbishop of Cashel has already proved the priority of this book to the Gospels, as far as such proof can be obtained * Gr. Ad. Epist. Judae. from internal evidence; I have endeavoured to select some of those passages of the Scripture which appear most remarkably to agree with expressions found in this work also : and I have arranged them in such a manner that reference may be easily made to their context. In the following observations I shall first en- deavour to state the general arguments which may be applicable to the question of the preservation of ancient prophecies, unnoticed in the Scriptures. I shall also enquire into the internal evidence which is attainable for the purpose of fixing the country, the time, and language, of the most ancient part ; as well as determining the pro- bable period subsequent to which it could not have been written, supposing that it were al- together apocryphal. I shall endeavour to make use of such scattered arguments as may seem to bear upon the question of its authenticity, and shall afterwards give the reasons which have induced me to prefer the present arrangement of the book, as being an approximation to its original form. But I must first remark that I have no design 6 of entering upon this question, as imagining it capable of accurate solution. As I shall offer no opinion as to the degree of authority which this book ought to possess, so I shall content myself with criticism which being professedly conjectural, can go no farther than to combine such probabilities as may afford at least, some foundation of belief, although positive proofs be unattainable. If^ however, it should be found that there are circumstances from which we may conclude that this book was but little known to the Jews sub- sequent to the captivity, and that the evidence as to their general knowledge of it before that period, is rather adverse than favourable to such a supposition ; much of the apocryphal character arising from its total absence from the Canon of Scripture will be taken away. And thus in the present instance we shall perhaps be justified in giving more weight to internal evidence in favor of the antiquity of some portion of the book, than would be otherwise allowable. The comparison of particulars derivable from internal evidence being, in this case, the chief source from whence an approximation to truth may be obtained ; the coincidence of several in- dications, which singly are of little value, may sometimes be preferable to a more direct but solitary evidence. With regard also to any passages connected with the ideas of Geography or Astronomy, ob- servable in these writings ; conjectures which are founded on comparison or analogy may be ad- missible, where they appear to tend towards a common conclusion. In considering the question whether this book may probably contain a record of the earliest patriarchal traditions, our first enquiry will be, as to the possibility that such traditions, if reduced to writing, could in any case be handed down to an age so late as that of the Apostles, without becoming part of the Jewish canon. On this subject I must refer the reader to the authority of a writer equally distinguished for extent of acquirements, and acuteness of intellect. The learned Bishop Horsley, when speaking of the Sybilline books, observes, " The prophecies " that were current in the g-entile world in later 8 " ages, since they were neither forgeries of the " heathen priests nor founded on the Jewish pro- '* phecies, must have been derived from prophecies " more ancient than the Jewish — They were frag- " ments, (mutilated perhaps and otherwise cor- " rupted), but they were fragments, of the most " ancient prophecies of the patriarchal ages." He proceeds to shew that " fragments of the prophecies of the patriarchal ages might be pre- served among idolatrous nations," and after shew- ing that the first idolatry consisted in blending the worship of the true God, " with the supersti- tious adoration of fictitious deities, and even of images," he adds that " paganism in this milder form was rather to be called a corrupt than a false religion." Hence he argues " that means might be used " on the part of God to keep up the remembrance " of himself among them, by a right use of which " they might have recovered the purity from " which they fell, and which, though through "the extreme degeneracy of mankind they pre- " vented not a general apostacy for many ages, " had a tendency however to the general restoration 9 *' by raising an universal expectation of the great " restorer." Having shewn that both Melchisedek and Potipherah, may be considered as priests of a corrupted patriarchal church, He adduces the instances of Job and Balaam to shew that pro- phets also were to be found among that church. Now we are to remember that if the gift of prophecy were not wanting among any people, they must certainly be in a state which would render them capable of preserving prophecies already delivered. The family of Abraham was indeed chosen by God, but being chosen to be the origin of that seed in which all the nations of the earth should be blessed at the first coming of the Messiah, any prophecy concerning the latter days, and ap_ plicable to others rather than to them, would not with any especial reason be committed to the custody of that chosen race. And therefore, if any such prophecy existed, it might not improba- bly be looked for in the first instance, among those, who, while corrupted in some degree by c 10 their addition of idolatry, still preserved among them the knowledge of the true God. Bishop Horsley appears to have thought the existence of such prophecies not to be unlikely. " If," says he, " any other prophets of that " period existed, and many might although their " works and their very names have been long " since forgotten, it is more certain, I say, of the " prophecies of these ages that they would be " committed to writing, than of the earlier tradi- " tions. For that letters were older than the be- " ginnings of idolatry cannot be proved, although " in my opinion it is more probable than the " contrary " The learned Walton, in his prolegomena, ex- presses the same opinion, applying it to the book of Enoch. *' Enochum prophetasse ejusque prophetise par- " tern temporibus apostolorum extitisse, ex epistola " JudaB certum est. Sine Scriptura vero tot " annorum millibus conservatum fuisse, nullo " modo probabile videtur." If, continues Bishop Horsley, "Balaam's Prophe- " cies were committed to writing, why not those 11 " of earlier prophets ? " and he afterwards adds that " to the mutilated words of the patriarchal '' church, the Greek Philosophers were probably " indebted for those fragments of the patriarchal " creed from which they drew the just notions " which we find scattered in their writings of the " immortality of the soul, a future retribution, the " unity of the Divine substance, and even of the " trinity of persons. And to no other source can " we refer the expectation that prevailed in the " heathen world at large, of a great personage " to arise in some part of the East for the general " advantage of mankind." It will be admitted that the very subjects, as to which the learned Bishop conceived that the heathen world must have acquired their know- ledge of them, from fragments of true prophecy preserved beyond the pale of the Jewish church, are, in fact, to be found in the book which is now under our consideration. The simple terms in which the trinity is de- scribed, as the " Lord of Spirits, the Elect one, ** and the Power that was over the waters on that " day," express most forcibly the meaning of their 12 author, but it is in vain that we seek to trace in these expressions any resemblance in terms, to those used by the Jewish Prophets, to those of the new Testament, or to the explanations of the early Christian Church ; and yet there is no subject with respect to which a similarity of terms would more probably be employed. Thus also as to the Messiah's coming, we find predicted the synchronism of the day, when " the " elect one shall sit on his throne," with the period at which " those who have been destroyed " in the desert, and who have been devoured by " the fish of the sea and by wild beasts, shall " return and trust in the day of the elect one, " for none shall perish in the presence of the " Lord of Spirits, nor shall any be capable of *' perishing-." Now although this harmonizes most exactly with the recognized predictions of the Apoca- lypse, yet there is no trace of imitation disco- verable; while the general description of the Messiah's coming is such as might easily have been perverted into a mistaken expectation of an immediate and temporal kingdom. 13 If then, the preservation of prophecy from the earliest times be generally admissible, — and if the subjects of this book are such as a learned writer, who wrote before it was discovered, conjectured would be found in the most ancient Prophecies; we may next enquire whether there are any cir- cumstances from which the probability of the preservation of this particular prophecy may be inferred, when we take into consideration the situation, and former state, of the country in which it has been found. And here I must observe that there is no question, whether a prophecy of Enoch ever ex- isted or not, because this is sufficiently proved by the quotation made by St. Jude. On that passage Cave says, — " Utcumque fuerit " et undecunque ilia habuerit Judas, sufficit nobis " a sancto spiritu ilia consignata, ut verissima, " et in canonicis libris inserta esse." " The only question therefore is, whether we " have here the prophecy so quoted, or whether " we are to consider its preseirvation as too im- " probable to be believed, or its corruptions so " extensive as to destroy the whole of its authority, 14 " or finally, whether this quotation has been in- " serted in a comparatively modern composition." If we suppose it to have originated among* the later Jews, or to have been preserved only by them in Palestine, or during their dispersion over Asia, and their captivity at Babylon ; it certainly appears very improbable that, in that case, the writing should have been lost, or that it should have been preserved in the country which had, of all others, the least communication with Palestine or Egypt. That it was known, although not generally known among the Jews of earlier times, I do not doubt; nor do I think it improbable that they had a chief share in preserving it: but it may have been preserved by such of the dispersed amongr; the heathen, as had not sufficient access to Grecian literature, to prevent the loss of the book ; nor sufficient communication with the learn- ed men who used that language, to impart to them a general knowledge of these or other He- brew writings. We know indeed, that in the time of Herodotus, so little was understood of the course of the 15 Nile, or of the country in which its sources were to be found, that the historian, who was content to acquire information from the Priests of Egypt as to every matter in which they could instruct him, yet went himself to Elephantina in order to acquire some information on this subject. Whether we look to any earlier or later period, (previous to the second century of the Christian aera), it appears that the chief communications between the two countries were those of hostile aggression or of careful defence ; a state of things most opposite to the probable transmission of any documents, such as that of which we are now speaking ; for such transmission, requiring some community of religious knowledge, must also require some approach to that similarity of opin- ion which can only result from unrestrained or constant intercourse. Supposing indeed the fact, that the book in question were brought in early times, from what- ever point it might come, into Ethiopia, it must be admitted that scarcely any other country can be pointed out, which, independent of national circumstances, is from its geographical position, 16 so well calculated for the preservation of any ancient record, without communicating to other countries the knowledge that such a record ex- isted . ^Ethiopia, cut otF from communication to the northward, to the extent which we have first described, and bounded on the west and south- ward by countries alike impassable, from the desert nature of their territory and the barbarism of their inhabitants, has on its remaining sides the sea which forms at once a boundary and barrier, while the points at which its coasts ap- proach the opposite shore of South Arabia, the ancient Sabsea, formed indeed a communication with that countr)^, but with no other. Thus, whatever change of manners, of religious rites or knowledge might occur in Ethiopia, must pro- bably be traced to Sabsea for its origin, and so far as position is concerned it would be probable that any writing preserved in Ethiopia, must also have been derived from thence. But we know that the actual history of ancient Ethiopia is so far confirmatory of this hypothesis^ that Nebuchadnezzar, after conquering the whole of the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula, 17 extended his conquests into Ethiopia itself, while it is declared that tlie Ahasuerus of the book of Esther, had also some dominion there ; and thus, whatever the knowledge or religion of Sabsea might at that time be, it would be spread with the progress of the conquerors. But previous to this period we are able, in some degree, to trace in Southern Arabia, a knowledge of the true God. . I apprehend that it is now generally acknow- ledged that the Queen of Sheba, or Saba, who "■ came from the utmost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon," came from this country. With regard to her, we may observe that our Saviour himself, speaking of this circumstance, says, " The Queen of the South shall rise up in " the judgment with this generation and condemn " it, for she came from the utmost parts of the " earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and be- " hold, a greater than Solomon is here." He therefore declared that this Queen gave an exam- ple of greater faith than those, who unconvinced by the wisdom of him who spake as never man spake, said, " Master, we would see a sign from thee." D 18 It was then, no mere gratification of curiosity unconnected with a religious motive, or compati- ble with a continuance in Idolatry, which induced this ancient Queen to perform so long and toil- some a journey. Her previous knowledge of the true God impelled her to seek instruction from one, whom she judged to be under his peculiar protection ; and although the well-known custom among the ancients of propounding enigmas, as in the cases of Hiram and of Sampson, might at first incline us to suppose that the same allusion only is continued in the passage concerning this Queen as it stands in our translation, yet if we examine the context we may conclude otherwise. It is true that the LXX have for the word here made use of, '^Atviyfiao-i ;" and that it is the same word nn'^r\ as occurs in the passage concerning Sampson's riddle in the book of Judges. But in that place and elsewhere it has joined with it the verb from whence it is derived, r\r\, which evi- dently restricts it to this single sense, while in the present passage, another verb is used, nD3, " tol- lere," and from thence, " tentare," the use of which, as Parkhurst justly remarks, implies a doubt concerning the matter put to trial. 19 The verse as it stands in our translation is, " And when the Queen of Sheba heard of the *' fame of Solomon concerning the word of the " Lord, she came to prove him with hard ques- " tions," that is to say, with questions which although difficult, had relation to the name or word of God, to the wisdom which was required to expound the mysterious allusions of the law of Moses, or to the lessons which might be deduced from the warnings of prophecy. While, therefore, with regard to the position of the Sabaean kingdom, we place more reliance upon Our Saviour's accurate delineation of the geographical character of this part of Arabia, as *' the south" and " the utmost parts of the earth," than on any other evidence which can be adduced on this subject ; I think that we ought also thus to interpret the purpose of the Queen's mission, in agreement with the scope of our Lord's dis- course when he mentioned her example. But thus we find that the knowledge of the true God was to be found in . Sabsea in the days of Solomon ; since the purpose which I have endeavoured to trace out could only have existed 20 in the mind of one previously so far instructed, as to admit the truth of the superintendance of God over his favoured nation. In the absence of any evidence as to the state of the Sabeeans during the period immediately subsequent to this, we may conclude that many among them must at least have had the means of attaining nearly to the state of proselytes, under the Jewish law. Thus, there is not only some evidence as to the possibility of the preservation of any prophetic writing in Sabeea at the period already referred to, and for some time afterwards, but a presumption also that any books known, however imperfectly, to the Hebrews at that time, would be made known to the Sabseans also. On the captivity of the ten tribes by Psalma- nassar, it appears probable that they were dis- persed not only in the countries to the north-east- ward of Judsea, but that they were scattered throughout the whole extent of country as far to the southward as the Persian Gulph ; for we are told that the King of Assyria not only brought men from Babylon, and from Hamath, and from Se- pharvaim, but also from Cutha, or Cusha, and 21 placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel. Now Cutha has usually been placed on the Persian Gulph, and there would thus be a large extent of country, in the whole of which the Jewish writings, or any which the fugitives might have acquired from other sources, might for a time be preserved. On the conquest of Nebuchadnezzar, it appears that the Jews whom he carried to Babylon were dispersed through his kingdom, as is observed by Junius, who in his commentary on this place, has, " in Babyloniam, i. e. in ditionem suam." And the book of Esther shews that they were dispersed through the southern provinces also, and that at that period, they kept themselves in a great de- gree separate from the other inhabitants of the empire. It is observable also that they kept up communication with one another, although sepa- rated by considerable intervals. If this were the case in other parts of the empire, the difficulty of the preservation of any records, would of course be less in a country among whose former inhabi- tants some degree of knowledge as to the true God, had still been preserved, as it seems to have 22 been in the southern portion of Arabia. Still, however, the circumstances in which the dispersed Israel, or the captive Judah were placed, were un- favourable to the multiplication of any records written in the purer Hebrew, which they might already have possessed. In a short time, we know that the majority of the nation ceased to under- stand their ancient language, having, as it appears, become habituated to the dialects of the countries in which they dwelt. Thus, even after their return to Jerusalem from the captivity, when Ezra " opened the book in the sight of all the people," we are told by Nehemiah (chap. viii. verse 8.) "That the Levites caused the people to under- stand the law, — " They read in the book, in the '* law of God, distinctly, and gave the sense, and *' caused the people to understand the reading." If this were the case with regard to the com- paratively well-known book of the law, it was still less probable that any other book written in the pure Hebrew, would be much understood or ob- tain much attention. But the subject of the book of Enoch renders this more likely, because, the Jew- ish Prophets having for several ages poured forth 23 prophecies, especially and evidently relating to the dispensations of God towards Israel and Judah, those subjects which concerned their own welfare would naturally excite their chief attention, espe- cially as the credit of any very ancient prediction must have been then nearly as doubtful as it is at the present day. Thus it being unlikely that much attention would be paid to those copies of this or any similar prophecy which might already exist, it is still less probable that such copies would be multiplied ; so that a book once known or originally possessed by the Jews might, by these means, possibly be lost among them, while it was preserved by others. It appears that the man of Ethiopia to whom Philip was sent, (Acts viii. 27.) whether we sup- pose him to have come from Sabaea or from the modern Abyssinia, certainly came from a country in which the knowledge of the Mosaic institutions was widely spread. It would other- wise have been incompatible with the intolerance of heathenism, that one who was avowedly a Jewish proselyte should have had "great autho- rity," or that he should publicly make so con- 24 siderable a journey, for the sake of worshipping at Jerusalem. And therefore we have some evi- dence that from the latter time of the dispersion, to the Christian cera, the preservation of a Hebrew writing was probable, either in Sabaea or in the opposite Ethiopia. I say in either of them, be- cause it is evident from the Arabian historians, as well as from the early Abyssinian history given by Ludolph, distorted and misrepresented as both may be, it is still evident that a constant inter- course subsisted between the two nations. Fabricius gives on the authority of Abulfaragius a singular tradition, that Enoch went into Ethio- pia and taught, which, as it is plainly metaphoil- cal, may perhaps, not without reason, be referred to the existence of writings attributed to him, in those countries. He also refers to Kissaeus, " in vitis patrum," as asserting, that the Sabaeans boasted themselves to be the heirs and possessors of the books of Enoch. Assuming then for the present, what I shall hereafter prove, that this was a Hebrew writing, and having shewn that its preservation in Sabaea 25 up to tlie Apostolic ao'p required no improbable cliain of circumstances. We may next enquire what evidence can be shewn for the probability that it should be safely kept from that time, with- out any farther circulation through the Christian world. As to the country described by the ancients as the African Ethiopia, Herodotus says, when speak- ing of the Ethiopians, to whom the spies of Cam- byses were sent ; — " Their coffins are said to be " constructed of chrystal. They enclose the corpse " in a hollow pillar of chrystal, which is dug up " in great abundance, and is of a kind that is " easily worked." Larcher's note on this passage, appended to Beloe's translation, is, " According "to Ludoiph they find in some parts of Ethiopia, " quantities of fossil salt which is transparent and " which indurates in the air." The passage in Ludoiph is as follows : — " More- " over, in the confines of Tigra and Angora, from '* a place called the Land of Salt there are natural " mountains of salt, from whence they supply " themselves with inexhaustible quantities; cutting "it out of the sides of the mountains in great E 26 " pieces of a white and solid substance* In the "■ mountain it is soft, and slivered off with little " labour, but in the air it hardens." There can therefore be little doubt that Herodo- tus and Ludolph speak of the same district, since the species of rock-salt is so peculiarly marked in both cases : and hence, we are at least able to identify the Ethiopia of Herodotus with this por- tion of modern Abyssinia. If we may argue from the direction of the journey of the Ethiopian mentioned in the Acts, it seems most probable that he was returning to the African Ethiopia ; since Gaza was the direct line for embarkation if he purposed afterwards to ascend the Nile. However this may be, or to whichever country his steps were directed ; as we may assume that much the same state of religious knowledge existed in both ; the inference may be the same, that the first preaching of Christianity in Ethiopia must have found many who, as Jews, would resist and separate themselves from the diffusion of the Gospel, as it would find also some prepared to modify their former Jewish opinions, according to the rule of the Christian 27 faith. Nor even at a comparatively recent period were all signs lost of such a transition : the Ethio- pians, according to Ludolph's interpreter, Gregory, are said to have called the bread which was set aside for the Eucharist and marked with a cross, " Corban." The derivation we cannot doubt. It must have been from former association of the same word with consecration to God in the gifts of the Jewish Temple. Nor can we ascribe the ancient legend formerly borne by the Abyssinian kings, " The lion of the tribe of Judah has conquered," nor the universal prevalence of the names of Michael, of Jacob, and of Sion, among the inhabitants of this coun- try, to any other cause than an ancient intermix- ture with the Jews, whether dispersed from the captivity of Psalmanasar or of Babylon, or from the subsequent destruction of Jerusalem. Thus, what slight evidence is now attainable on this subject, tends towards the supposition that the first preaching of Christianity in Ethiopia, would be offered to a community imbued in some degree with Jewish prejudices. From hence it might result that those, who preferring to be 28 nominally Jews, rejected the glad tidings offered to them ; would swell the numbers of such, as chose rather still to boast their descent from Solo- mon, or to solace themselves with fables of the ancient greatness of their Israelite forefathers. However this may have been, this result must have ensued, as it did elsewhere, that the Jewish portion of the nation would become decided in their separation from the rest; would persist in cultivating their own languge, and in handing down from age to ao-e their own sacred or tradi- tionary writings. And with this supposition the account given by Ludolph accords. *' The Jews formerly held several fair and large " provinces ; almost all Dembea, as also Wegara " and Sanen : stoutly and long defending them- " selves by means of the rocks, till they were "driven from thence bySusneus; (about 1C30) " at which time they also lived according to their " own customs. Now they are dispersed : though " many still remain in Dembea, getting their liv- " ings by weaving, and exercising the trade of " carpenters. Most of them still keep up their " own synagogues, have their own Hebrew bibles. 29 " and speak in a corrupt talmadic dialect. The " fathers of the Society (of Jesus) never took care " to enquire when, or on what occasion the Jews *' came into Ethiopia, or whether they have any " other books, especially histories : but it seems " very probable that there may be found some " ancient books among them, since they have " lived so long and so securely in such inaccessi- " ble holds." Thus it appears that from a period so early that the separation may well be referred to the causes which I have stated ; the Jews have formed in Ethiopia a separate community. Whoever may have been the Apostle of the Abyssinians, the establishment of Christianity among them cannot, I think, be dated later than the end of the third century ; because their baptism, not only in the use of trine immersion, but in the custom of afford- ing the support of " susceptores" to the baptised person, and in the distribution of milk and honey when the ceremony was concluded,* agrees so nearly with the expressions of TertuUian. — " Let " us thrice be plunged and from thence support- * See Ludolph. 30 ^' ed ; Let us taste the partaking of milk and " honey." Their refusal of special auricular confession, to which the Jesuits could never persuade them, shews that the latest date of their doctrinal polity must be previous to the eighth century ; while their use of the name of chest for the table or altar on which the elements of the Eucharist are laid, makes it evident that this custom is of far greater antiquity ; for it must have been received either before or soon after the Church from the the cessation of persecutions at the command of Constantine, had lost the usage acquired in those perilous days, in which the Christian wor- shippers, preserving in a chest the bones of those who had fallen martyrs to their profession of faith,* partook of the Eucharist, upon that chest; convey- ing it secretly from place to place, as the vigilance of their persecutors might have required. It will also be seen on reference to the Abbyssinian history, that their want of regard to any councils subse- quent to the fifth century, and their perpetuation of the disputes concerning the nature of the Sa- * Council of Carthage, Canon 14. viour, which after that time ceased to agitate the Asiatic churches, afford some ground for sup- posing that their religious or literary intercourse with the rest of the Christian world subsequent to the aera of the Hegira, must have been so small, that we need hardly enquire whether such a book as that the history of which I am now endeavour- ing to trace, could have been composed in Abys- sinia during the interval which elapsed from that period, to the commencement of the sixteenth century. The state of Europe itself will enable us to decide, that such a supposition is altogether improbable. But the language now in use in Ethiopia, is the Amharic, and it has been used from the beginning of the sixteenth century, when on the change of the royal dynasty into the Am- haric line, the ancient language, or Geez, became disused, and was gradually less and less acquired, till at length very few of the natives had any ac- quaintance with it, even in the time of Ludolph. As this book therefore is written in the ancient Ethiopic, the time at which it was composed or translated, must at least have been prior to the period of the Amharic conquest ; and therefore, as 32 regards its origin or preservation, we need trace its history no farther, than to mention the circum- stances under which it was found, and brought to this country by Mr. Bruce. It appears that he was resident in Dembea, at the time during which he was occupied in obtain- ing copies of all the Ethiopic books which were to be procured, or for which he could obtain a transcriber; and it is unfortunate that he was accidentally prevented from making those en- quiries concerning this book, which he was so well qualified to have undertaken, had he been aware of its real contents. It appears that having in his first examination, read that part of one of the later and spurious books, which relates to the voracity of the ancient giants, he was so struck by its absurdity, that he *' had not farther patience," to read what must na- turally have appeared to be so entirely apocryphal ; and hence, from his narrative, no information is to be gathered bearing on the subject which I am now about to discuss. Mr. Bruce appears to have been strongly im- pressed with an idea, that the Ethiopic was not 33 only prior in date to the Hebrew character, but that it was the original language in which written characters were first made use of. Had he ex- amined the book of Enoch farther, he would probably have altered his opinion. It seems, at least to me, so far as my limited knowledge of these lanoj-uaofes allows me to decide, that there is very satisfactory evidence, that not only the most ancient, but also the more modern of these books was originally written in the Hebrew lan- guage. I forbear to mention several minor proofs of this fact, which are contained in the book which I have endeavoured to restore, because 1 think that the word to which 1 will now direct the reader's attention, merits a more detailed examination than I could give to it, if I entered at any length into the discussion of the other derivations. In a description of the day when " The Lord of " Spirits shall place upon the throne of his glory, " the elect one, who shall judge all the works of " the holy in heaven above," the following words occur. ^'The Cherubim, the Seraphim, and the Ophanin, 34 " all the angels of power, and all the angels of the " Lords, namely, of the elect one, and of the other " power, who was upon earth over the water on " that day, shall raise their united voice." With the Hebrew etymology of Cherubim and Seraphim every reader will already be familiar ; but as this is the first occasion on which I have met with the third word, " Ophanin," I regard it as being calculated to afford a test of the original lan- guage of this book ; since, whatever might be its meaning, it is evidently intended by the author to express the name of the third of those angelic ex- istences, of which the Cherubim and Seraphim occupy the two former places, as " the angels of power and the angels of the elect Lord," while the latter expresses the angel of the Lord last alluded " to, as the other power who was upon earth over the water on that day." It appears to me that in the Hebrew, the same name is to be found, in the same juxta-position with the Cherubim, in 1 Kings vii. 30. in Ezekiel i. 15, 16, 19, 20, 21 ; and chap. x. 2, 6, 9, 10, &c. and that in the two latter of these chapters, much light is thrown upon a description which is otherwise in- 35 explicable, by reference to the sense which the word Ophanin bears in the book of Enoch. In the passage of the book of Kings indeed we may observe that the description is that of a sen- sible and material object, framed in conformity with Scriptural types, but still typically, and not simply representative ; and therefore while v^^e re- cognize the symbols of the oxen and lions, as appropriated to the Cherubim, we may conclude that the symbolic wheels not unaptly represent that power, which is described by Zechariah, as " the eyes of the Lord which run to and fro through the whole earth." But in the vision of Ezekiel we have a descrip- tion of the objects before typified in Solomon's Temple ; a description, allegorical perhaps, or em- blematical, yet applied to those objects themselves. And here again, after the vision of the Cherubim, (verse 15.) " Behold one wheel upon the earth by " the living creatures with his four faces. The " appearance of the wheels and their work was " like unto the colour of a Beryl ; and they four *' had one likeness." Now the Hebrew word for wheels which is given by Kennicott's Codices, and by every autho- 36 rity which I have consulted in other passages where the word occurs without an allusion to the Cheru- bim, is simply, j"'DD^J, unless where another word, 'jd'?^, is used. For the chariot wheel of Pharoah, Exodus xiv. 25. the word is written without any vau. The potter's wheel, Jeremiah xviii. 3. is written in the same manner. I have only been able to find one instance where the vau is present, Nahum iii. and there the word is in the singular only, jD1J<. The other places which are rendered by wheels in our translation have either, *7a'7D, or some more indefinite expression, as feet, or course, in the Hebrew. The LXX appear to have used rqo')(ps indifferently in the places which I have cited, but it happens that the hexapla is deficient in most of them. The word here made use of throughout the whole of the first and tenth chapters, is, p3^^^<, Aopanin. And it is remarkable that, according to a usual mode of the formation of Hebrew nouns, the word might be thus made by the change of an initial Jod of the root, into vau, the formative Aleph being prefixed ; and that if this were the case, the two roots from which the word could be thus formed, signify, either to breathe or live, or to shine splendidly ; both of which attributes of 37 life and splendour, are ascribed to the mystical wheels, in the description given of them by Eze- kiel, for the word translated dreadful in chap. i. 18. has the peculiar sense of dazzling by excess of light; and in a synonymous expression in verse 22, the same word is made use of, which, in Judges xiii. 6. is applied to the brightness of the countenance of the angel of God, who appeared to the wife of Manoah. That the word p3SlJ^ has been rightly rendered in the book of Kings, the context of that place sufficiently shews; but in this passage of Ezekiel I apprehend that it expresses, also, a mysterious name, like that of Cherubim or Seraphim, like them, synonymous with a certain symbol, like them applied, as we see both are by Ezekiel, to living creatures, and like them expressive of one order of those angelic beings who stand before the throne of God. And thus also we find that the writer of this book applies it. Both in the first and in the tenth chapters, Eze- kiel describes the wheels as being living creatures, " the spirit of life was in the wheels" — and ascribes to them "eyes round about," in terms which he 38 does not seem so expressly to ascribe to the Cherubim. If we compare this description with that of the four living creatures (^wa) in the Apocalypse chap, iv. verses 6, 7, 8, we cannot doubt the intentional similarity of the two forms of expression. " In the " midst of the throne, and round about the throne, " were four living creatures, full of eyes before and " behind : And the first was like a lion, and *' the second like a calf, and the third had a " face as a man, and the fourth was like a flying " eagle. And the four living creatures had each " of them six wings about him, and they were full " of eyes within, and they rest not day and night, " saying, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, " which was, and is, and is to come." In the vision of Ezekiel, the four wheels are represented to be " as a wheel within a wheel." by which, if we suppose them to have a common axis, and to be placed at equal angles from each other ; a figure will be produced, combining four equal circles in the same sphere, and possessing equal capability and ease of motion in every possi- ble direction : but Ezekiel also adds that their 39 rings, or circumferences "were full of eyes about " them four." Thus have we a most expressive emblem of continual watchfulness and unceasing- motion, such as might befit those existences, of whom it is said, by St. John, that they " are full of eyes within, " and they rest not day nor night," while they are described in this book, as those who " sleep not" in heaven above. This word Ophanin, seems to have been un- known to the Greeks ; at least I have been unable to find any trace of it. Dionysius Areopagita, or whoever wrote under his name, thus describes the order of the angels in the presence of God. " Our divine Priest has divided them into three " Triads. The most holy thrones (by whom he " appears to mean the Ophanin) and the creatures " having many eyes and wings, called by the He- " brews Cherubim and Seraphim ; and the next " place the powers, the Lords, and the Dominions " occupy. The third place is filled by the last " hierarchies of the heaven." * * " Tavroi! Gsiof h/amv Ij^eus us r^sn apo^si^si r^ixSois : Tas Se fyoip ayiaraTus " Gfovaf x*i TO. TtoXuofji./u.aroi, xixi TroXvTtrs^oc ayoi.X/u.ara, X.£pvGipi., ESfajoiy Oavn " xati Zlt^a^i^ ovOf^aov. Patricius supposes that by Chamephes, Cham or Ham was meant ; but whatever weight we may allow to this conjecture, and independently of any supposition that different names were attributed to the same person, or that the de- scent of the sons of Noah from Enoch agrees with the relation in which the names of Hermes and Chamephes occur ; it will be sufficient for the present purpose to observe that this passage agrees with those which have already been cited, in tracing to a very early era the origin of the writings ascribed to Hermes. To the same book Patricius has referred the following words : " Ovroi to Kpvw-a, ^rjtriv Ep/nriQ, " Twv f/twi' iTTiyvMaovrai -yjOajUjUarwi' TravTtov, Kai " ^laKpivovai, Kai Tiva /u£V avTOi /cart^wcrd' ; a 0£ Kai " irpoQ tvepyecjiag Ovrjrwv ^Oavei, Bapr(i)v, ai TtTevyarai juou vEijOOvag TT]g a^Bapaia<; (jiapjua/cw ^op^iag, eiriKpaTio aaeireiQ rravTiOQ aiijjvog /cat a6apT0i SiajU£ti/aT£ -^povovg, Kai aOib)pr\TOif avepeuvrjrot ■yivop.ivai. *' O sacred books of everlasting things, which " by me, a prophet, have been filled with very * Melpomene Ixxxvii. and xci. s 2 132 " evil prophecies, of the period without end ; " entirely beyond destruction, through the times " of every age, both incorruptible ye have re- " mained, and unseen, being unrecounted !" From the idiomatic mode of expression it is certainly improbable that this should have been a translation from Hebrew ; nor can it be sup- posed to have formed any part of the book of Enoch ; but yet it appears to express very dis- tinctly the belief of the writer, that some ver}^ ancient book on the subject of the judgment had existed, while the slightness of this single evi- dence becomes more worthy of consideration, from its agreement with the conclusion which we draw from other arguments. It is worthy of remark how closely the descrip- tion here given agrees with the supposed fact of the preservation of this book, which, whether it be prophetic or not, has indeed remained " through the times of every age," unseen and unrecounted. Again, we have the following remarkable de- claration concerning Isis and Osiris, that " they " discerning the general destruction of bodies, " foreshewed among all the prophets this con- 133 summation. " Ourot to (pOooif.iov twv awnaTwv iwiyvovTeq, to ev airaai TeXeiov twv Trpo^rjrwv ftX- " vacravTo." And tliup, when taken in connexion with the foregoing passage, and with the subject of the book of Enoch, the description here given seems not only to harmonize with the fragment of Hermes, but with Enoch also. When we recollect that the book of Enoch not only mentions " the elect one," but also " the " other power who was upon earth over the " water on that day ;" the following words may seem also to imply that connexion between the writings of Hermes and Enoch, which I have already endeavoured to trace ; although, it must be admitted, that they may have been modified according to the Platonic doctrines. " There was endless darkness in the abyss, " and water, and a spirit, subtle, percipient, ex- " isting with power in chaos. "-^"Hv yap ct/cotoc; " OTTEipOC SV apV(TffM, Kttl vdwp, KUt TTVeVfXa, AtTTTOr, ** voepov, ^vvafiH ovtu ev \aui. In the next passages which I shall produce, the resemblance is at least sufficiently obvious, to add somewhat to the probability of the other evidence, with which it appears to coincide. 134 HERMES. " Reveal thyself to the world with warning ; and instruct with peace the cruelty of the people. Give to life laws; give prophetic words to death. Fill all things with joyful hopes. Men have feared the unrighteousness (which is) far from God : and no man shall sin. " The earth was very sorrowful,' &c. ENOCH. (P. 12, Transl) " Purify the earth from all oppression, from all in- justice, from all crime, from all impiety, and from all pollution which is commit- ted upon it. Exterminate them from the earth. Then shall all the children of men be righteous, and all na- tions shall pay me divine honours, and bless me ; all shall adore me. The earth shall be cleansed from all corruption," &c. AvareiAov rjSs aiavTov yjpr^fAaTiCovTi to> Koof^uo, Kai TOO piov TO iiypiov fxvi^aov ftpijv^, vapeorov vouovf; TO) (jui), -^aipKrai vvkti y^priiyfiovQ. YWriptoaov koXmv eATTiowv iravra. ^(opHowaav avOpwTroi tjjv otto *' 0foi» BKciKiav, /cat ov^hq afxa^Tr]au. — Ft/ Traprjv irtpi- " XvTTog £^»??." These last words seem to agree with one of the fragments of Zoroaster, which also occurs unconnected with any context. " The " earth weeps even on account of her children." AvTOvc Ti yOb)v KaTo^vperai hq rt/cva juE^jOig." 1 have given to this translation a sense which seems to approximate to the words made use of, 135 on the supposition that they require much cor- rection : but in the original they are left unal- tered, that the variation may be taken into account, in judging of the relation which these passages bear to each other ; yet, in any case, it is evident that the wickedness of the world, a future peace, and a cessation from sin, are alluded to ; so that the subject is the same as that of the more ancient parts of Enoch, from which, that which is here quoted, seems to have been imitated in one of the later books. The obscurity of this passage is indeed partly cleared up by the testimony of Manetho, in whose letter to Ptolemy, preserved by Syncel- lus *, we have not only a reference to Hermes, but a declaration that his prophecies related to the future state of the world. "It is fit that 1 " should answer your inquiries, O King, with *' respect to all those things of which you wish "to be informed, when you ask concerning " things future, which shall come upon the " world. According to your desire, those things " shall be explained to you, which the sacred * Reliquiae Sacrse, vol. ii. p. 257. 136 " books written by our forefatber Hermes Tris- " megistiis, bave taugbt." " H/uac Bh XoyiteaOai, " fieyiOTe jfJCKJlXiV, TTtpi TTllVTWV lOV laV |3ouXlJ T)/tiOC " fs£Tac7a« Trpay/Horwi', fTTt^j/rouvn aoi tte^i twv /tieX- " Xoi'Twr rw Koaf^iM yiveaOfH, Kado>c iKfX^vaac jnof, " 7r6pt^av>}(T£rai (rot a i/maOov ttpa pipXia ypucptvTa vtto " TOV TrpOTTOTOpOg TptCTjUEyiffTOU Ep/iOU. Thus, while it would appear that both these extracts relate to the same subject, they both, in their different degrees, coincide with the book of Enoch. I add anotlier passage, which seems to have such an allusion to the same subjects, as might be expected, if it were derived from a prototj^pe such as we now possess in the book which I have endeavoured to restore. After some allusion to the course of the pro- vidence of God, the following words, as very frequently happens in this composition, seem to occur without any distinct relation to their context. *' And that they may be interpreted " to this purpose, there shall be great records of " things done upon the earth, handing down " to posterity, in the renewal of times, obscu- " rity : and that of necessity every generation 137 " of living flesh, and of its offspring, and of the " production of all that is made, the things " which have become evil, shall be made new. " Kai avaXv9r]vai eiq o ecrrai /tiE-yaXo OTTO/nvJj/ioi'EU- " fxara T£"^i'ovpyr]iiiaTOJv siri rrjg yrjg KaraXnrovTeQ tv " avaveaxjei y^povtw a/uaUjOW(Ttv. Kai wacrav yiveaiv " ifxipvyov crapKOQ /cat Kapirov (nropag kch TraatjQ '' re-^vovpyiag ra EXarrow^sva avavewOijatTai avayKi], It is evident that this sentence also has become corrupted, but it still sufficiently points to the same conclusion, as those which have preceded it. Nor is it improbable that the vitiation of these passages, when taken in connexion with the abrupt manner in which they occur, as frag- ments having little connexion with each other, may be rightly regarded as one evidence of their antiquity. On the subject of the last fragment, it may be remarked, that Conringius"* has quoted from Julius Firmicus the observation, that the Egyp- tians themselves were acquainted with one re- novation {aTroKaTaaramv) of the world by water, and another by fire, (eKTrvpcjaiv ;) and while it is * Conringius, de Med. Herm. cap. v. T 138 very difficult to account for their possessing this knowledge, except by the supposition that frag- ments of early prophecy were current among them ; it will be the more probable that those surviving predictions from whence such know- ledge might have been drawn, existed at an early period ; while the fact of their existence, under various names, will render it also pro- bable that some original, from which they might be derived, had been known in times still more remote. Thus, in the book already referred to, Isis and Osiris are said to have prophesied of the general destruction of mortals. The same inference also may be drawn from the words of Jamblichus *, who says that the ancients called all writings of the same nature by the name of Hermes. '' Ep/uov iravra TO oiKiia avyy^aiifxaTa ' CTTOVOjLtoCOl'TEC. I desire, however, to draw from such coinci- dences with the subject of the book of Enoch, no farther conclusion, than that the fragments referred to, being themselves earlier than the Christian era, while it is scarcely possible that * Lib. i. De Mvst. 139 they should knowingly have been embodied into a later apocryphal book, they must be regarded as evidence of the existence of some prior writing. And since we have no evidence of any other composition from which both they, and tlie books of Enoch, could be taken, that this writing must have been contained in those books themselves. But while I am thus led to assign a very early date even to those portions of the books under the name of Enoch, which I do not regard as the oldest, I would be under- stood to claim for them no other authority than that which may be allowed to a record of the opinions of the age in which they were pro- duced; while I shall neither attempt to assign to them any exact date, nor to determine the manner in which they became mingled with that portion which I have assumed to be more authentic. But whatever similarity I have been able to trace, between the writings attributed to Enoch and to Hermes Trismegistus, is not confined to the latter alone ; for although there are but few remains under the names of Musseus, of Pytha- goras, and Orpheus, — yet there is a remarkable T 2 140 likeness between the titles of books supposed to have been written by them, and by Hermes also. The Aoyog h^og, the TtXerat, which may have had relation, not to the perfection of the initiated, but to the concluding period of the world ; and lastly, the compositions under the more general term of Xprja/uot, seem alike to have been attributed to all the authors whom I have named. The equal credit due to these several traditions, would lead us to ascribe some common origin to these concurrent assertions ; and w^e should thus refer them all to some single author in a very early age. We speculate indeed only on general grounds, where any exact compa- rison is so entirely be3'^ond our reach; but since the resemblance which I have noticed cannot be ascribed to chance alone, the ancient existence of some prophecy from which the materials of apparent prophecies might be drawn, is cer- tainly the more probable, from the necessity of accounting for such resemblances in some way or other. Fabricius * observes of the ancient Zoroas- * Bib. Graec, vol. i. 141 ter, " Verisimile est Zoroastris doctrinam gemi- " nam esse Hermeticae, sive Egyptiacae veteri, " lit ex eodem fonte profecta videatur esse." And it appears that one of the Arabian histo- rians * has asserted that Zoroaster and Osiris were the same. Thus, while we may add this name to those which I have already mentioned, as having been confused in the lapse of ages, some traces of doctrines, or perhaps of expres- sions contained in the book of Enoch, may possibly be found to have survived, among the few fragments attributed to Zoroaster or Hys- taspes. When speaking of the latter name, Bishop Horsleyt observes, " For Hystaspes, I " will not too confidently assert that he was not " the compiler of the writings which were cur- '* rent under his name : but 1 conceive that he " was only the compiler from originals of high " authority." To whomsoever, indeed, we may attribute the original of these names, their great antiquity must be admitted. As the name of * Kircher, Qiiclip. Egypt, i. p. 131. f Works, vol. ii. p. 218. 142 Zoroaster appears not only from sound but from composition to have been Hebrew, so it has been referred to that language not only by Bochart, but by other critics ; and if we analyse it, on this supposition, it is remarkable that the sense of each component part agrees with the offices ascribed to Enoch. The sense of the root "nj^' is " contemplatus est," while that of "lilD is '* latuit, abscondit se, abdidit, celavit." Thus it coincides with the purport of that passage already quoted, as found both in the fragments of Hermes and in Enoch, in which it is said that the prophet attained to knowledge, which should be hidden till the latter generations of the world. Whoever Zoroaster may have been, all authors have agreed in ascribing to the frag- ments attributed to him, a very remote antiquity. From Plutarch *, who speaks of him as long anterior to the Trojan war, to Pletho and Psel- lus, both of whom, in their Scholia on these frag- ments, seem to have assumed that the Pythago- reans had received the doctrines found in them, * De Iside et Osiride, 369. 143 after a long tradition, the same opinion seems to have prevailed. Eusebius * has spoken of Zoroaster as contemporary with Ninus ; and Plinyf quotes Eudoxas, as an authority for ascribing to this name the most extreme and fabulous antiquity ; for it appears that the date referred to by that author was no less than six thousand years before the death of Plato. But such error at so early a period, is at least a sign that a tradition, even then obscure, must be extremely ancient ; and although in the few fragments which now remain, there is but little opportunity for tracing any resemblance which may have existed between them and the book ascribed to Enoch ; yet we may, in the first place, remark, that the same indistinct tradition has existed concerning the works of Zoroaster, as concerning these of Hermes. Thus Suidas calls Zoroaster, " '2^0(j)OV rra^a TQvg £V Aarpovo/Lua,^^ and attributes to him works concerning astro- nomy and prophecy, " AarspoaKOTrtKa kui awore- *' XtffjuoTi/ca . " Nor will the similarity be found * Euseb. de Praep. Evang. lib. x. f Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. xxx. c. 1. 144 less to apply to the titles of the more modern works ascribed to these several names. The same subjects of chemistry, of medicine, and of the virtues of plants, appear to be common to both ; while the first of the four books under the name of Hermes, which have borne the title of " Kvpavi^£g,'' treats of precious stones ; thus agreeing with a reference made by Pliny * on this same subject, to the writings of Zoroaster. Doubtless many of these writings referred to, not only by modern, but by ancient authors, are alike supposititious ; but still they may serve to mark the uniform direction of that constant cur- rent of opinion, to which some original impulse must have been given. It is difiicult to assign any other cause for these coincidences, than the original existence of some document, from which writings, under these names, having at first been taken, might gradually be obscured by additions or altera- tions ; till at length the identity of their real source would be forgotten, as tradition became fainter with the lapse of years. * Lib. xxxvii. c. 10. 145 It", then, in the fragineiits of Zoroaster, con- fessedly so ancient, we discover traces of a know- ledge of the truth concerning the future judg- ment, and especially concerning the agency of fire, whether natural or moral, in the purifica- tion of the world ; we shall reasonably conclude, that this knowledge must have been gained from some prophecy extant at that period; and the resemblance in these fragments to the doctrines of the book of Enoch, will therefore tend, in some degree, to confirm the probability that this book existed in a very early age. It will be seen that these expressions are, in- deed, susceptible of such a metaphysical expla- nation as might agree with that reference of spiritual existence to fire, which has been usually attributed to Zoroaster. But the Scholia, both of Psellus and of Pletho, show how probable it is that these fragments have been misunderstood, when it has been attempted to affix to them a merely metaphorical signification. The differ- ence of the two interpretations to which I have referred, will at least show, that thus inter- preted, these fragments are even more obscure u 146 than when we merely attend to their literal meaning. Fabricius refers to Hyde *, as having been the possessor of a book which he had translated from the Persian, in which the History of Zoroaster was contained : the subject of the book is said by him to have been, " De rebus iniquissimis " temporibus mundi gestis." And from the " Ouphnekat," or most ancient wisdom of the Indians, literally translated into Latin by An- quetil du Perron, it appears that the words of the ancient Zoroaster were understood to relate to the day of judgment. What credit is to be given to these accounts I know not, but they may perhaps tend to incline us towards the sup- positioUj that any references to things future contained in the few following fragments, ought rather to be understood literally than allego- rically. We may not the less rightly thus interpret them, though the metaphysical subtilties of the Pythagorean school, or the later personification * Hyde, p. 328. 147 of the two antagonist principles, may appear to contradict such a supposition ; because it is not improbable that these allegories were only a result of that obscurity which must have appeared to envelope any literal interpretation, when the reader was deprived of the knowledge of the events referred to. And thus the same descrip- tion, which might present no difficulty to one instructed in the prophecies of the Holy Scrip- tures, may have appeared even to the wisest among the heathen, as beyond solution by any literal explanation. In the work of Plutarch (de Iside et Osiride) the following sentence occurs, at the conclusion of an account of the doctrines ascribed to Zoro- aster. " A time predestined shall arrive, at " which Arimanius, the source of pestilence and " famine, shall, of necessity, be totally destroyed, " and disappear from among men, and the earth " becoming plain and equal, there shall be but " one life, one polity, and one language among " mankind, blessed and liberated." " Ettekti §£ -^povog ei/Liapfievog, sv w tov Apifxaviov " Xoijuov ETrayovra Kai \iiJ.ov, otto rovrtov avayKr\ ^Bapyjvai TravTawaai Kai atpaviaOrjvai' tjjc Se yiQ u 2 148 iTTtTTtCov Kai OjUaX>/g -ytyo/uevfjc, iva (5iov Kai /niav TTOAiTtiav avBptoTTwv Kai /iiaKapiwv Kai OjUO-yXwcrffwi; airoXvTUJv ytveadai. The few fragments under the name of " ora- " cular magica," as edited by Opsopaeus*, do not amount in all to more than eighty lines : there is, however, some evidence of that knowledge of a future judgment, and destruction by fire, the source of which, if it be not attributed to the Scriptures, must be traced to some extraneous prophecy, elsewhere preserved. In the fragments ascribed to Zoroaster by Patricius, the following line occurs : " The spirit of the spirit is the maker of the " world (reserved for fire)." " Now yap Noug itrriv o Koafiov ra^viDjc; Trvpiov. As it seems probable that the sense of irvpiov is to be understcod without metaphor ; so also, I imagine, must the word ttu^ivov, in the following sentence, be equally literal in sense : " Give up the soul (reserved for fire) to works of righteousness, " For you shall save the xnortal body." " iiKTiDog TTvptrov vow, " Epyov" £7r cuce/Siijc pivrrrov yap awfia aawtreig." * Pfiri.siis. MPtvu. 149 That the future judgment is alluded to in these instances, will appear the more probable from comparing them with a subsequent passage : " The heavenly arch appears no longer firm, ** Nor shine the stars ; the moon has hid her light, " The earth hath not remained ; and by the glare " Of lightnings, all things are beheld." " Oure yap ovpcunog Kvrpog tote (j)aii'£TaL oy^og, " AcrTipsc ov Xa^iTTo^iaC ttjq firjVTjq (jywg iceKaXvTVTat, " Xdu)v ovK £arr]Kt' /jXETrercti Ta te izavTa Kepavpoig." It is evident that these lines can only have alluded to the destruction of the material earth ; and those which follow appear to have the same reference : " When without form thou seest the sacred fire " Resplendent, crossing eagerly the depths " Of all the world, attend thou to the sound, " The voice of the fire." " HvtKa fxtv fiXixptjQ jxop(^r)Q avEV lepov irvp *' Aajxirofxeyov aKipTrjOou oXov Kara j^evdea KOfffiou, " KXvOl TTVpOQ TTjV v KOf^iiaOivre^, oi re e^ EpuOpwv, tojv ev Aaia " Kara ^oy/za jSovXrjc,- aTTorrraXEvrtuv irpea^EVT(x)v tiri " T»}V avTi'ypa^rjv. But if it be thus probable that this collection was made from the source indicated by Manetho, in a passage which has been already quoted from his letter to Ptolemy; the Sibylline verses being thus, in some degree, identified with the writings ascribed to Hermes, their most ancient portions might be expected to coincide with the book of Enoch, if it were indeed the original of the Her- metic prophecies. Before I adduce some pas- sages which seem to confirm this expectation, it may be noticed that Pausanias, when giving an account of the death of a supposed Sibyl, adds, that she was associated with Hermes in the in- scription placed upon her tomb : " With Hermes and the Nymphs beneath this stone I rest." " AWa ireXag Nu/i^aiffi Kat Ep/xj; wo' viroKeifJ.ai." Nor is this tradition contradicted by the words 154 of Suidas, who says*, " The Chaldean, or, as *' some have said, the Hebrew Sibyl, or the " Persian one, was derived from the blessed " Noah. — " 2ij3vXXa XaX^at/ca rj Kai Trpog riviov " Ej3f)ata oi'0^ta40jU£V»j, 17 /coi Tlspaig, sk tow /naKa- " prwrarou Nw£." And he adds, that she prophe- sied many things of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. If we compare the accounts of the various Sibyls, with regard to their comparative anti- quity, it will be found that the Erythrean Sibyl seems, by the common consent of authors, to have been acknowledged as the most ancient. iElian speaks of a Hebrew Sibyl 'f, and seems to have placed her name before others, as being the oldest ; and Strabo j: has observed, that " the Erythrean Sibyl was a certain woman who " prophesied among the ancients." — '* E/c Be " E|Ou0pa)v 2ij3uXXa fortv fxavriKTi] yvvi] twv ap-^aiujv Cicero, who, as having been himself one of the Decemviri, must have been conversant with the * Suid. St/3wX\a. f ^e Bello Goth. i. 24. 1 Strabo, lib. xix. 155 contents of that second collection of the Sibylline verses, which had been chiefly brought from the East, certainly considered that their import did not especially relate to the affairs of Rome ; and he drew the inference, that the book had de- signedly been made obscure by the omission of dates and names. He says*, " lidem versus " alias in aliam rem posse accommodari videan- *' tur, hominum et temporum definitione sub- " lata." It appears, however, that their general tenor was the prediction of future commotion or destruction. Apollodorus is quoted by Opso- pseus, in his preface to the Sibylline books, as affirming that the Sibyl foretold the destruction of Troy ; from whence, as Cicero has informed us, that no names were contained in these books, the inference may at least be drawn, that the destruction of cities or empires was alluded to in general terms. That the first collection of these books was different from the second, made on the occasion already mentioned, (a. u. c. 678.), appears from the difference of the conjunctures in which they * De Divinatione, ii. 54. X 2 156 were consulterl. The first were applied to as for advice or assistance, both when Hannibal in- vaded Italy *, and also on the incursion of the Gauls ; but as to the second collection, Livy f has recorded, that they were only consulted when it was thought that some supernatural evil might be impending. " Inspectionem illorum '" non ferme decretam nisi cum tetra essent " prodigia nunciata." It must indeed be admitted, that this second collection, having been added to, as it appears from various sources, underwent revision, at least on two occasions ; once by Augustus, and a second time by order of Nero. There is, how- ever, no reason to suppose, that in these revisions any thing farther was done than to separate the true Sibylline books from other pseudo-prophetic works, which from time to time had been asso- ciated with them. As to the first recension, Suetonius observes J:, that Augustus ordered, that whatever prophetic books, whether Greek or Latin, had insufficient testimony as to their authors, should be burnt ; while he only retained * Plutarch, Fab. Max. §. 176. f Livii lib. xxii. X Suetonius in Augusto, f. 31. 157 the Sibylline books ; which, it seems, from the testimony of Dio *, were at that period tran- scribed afresh by the Priests. The words of Suetonius are, " Quicquid fatidicorum librorum " Grseci atque Latini generis, nuUis vel parum " idoneis auctoribus vulgo ferebatur ; supra duo " millia contracta undique cremavit, ac solos " retinuit Sibyllinos." If we recall to mind the connexion which ap- pears to have subsisted between the names of Hermes, Osiris, and Apollo, it will seem most probable that the verses thus retained were those which had been brought from the East ; since Augustus ordered that the Sibylline books should from that time be kept in the temple of Apollo. Ammianus t is quoted by Fabricius J as having mentioned that these books were afterwards pre- served from the fire which destroyed that temple in the reign of Nero ; when, as he states, had it not been for the most effectual assistance, " etiam " Cumana carmina consumpserat magnitude " flammarum." From this time they appear to have survived till the days of Honorius, when * Dio, lib. liv. p. 532. f Amin. lib. xxiii. c. 3. I Fab. Bib. Graeca, i. p. 294. 158 the temple of Apollo was burnt in the commotion caused by Stilicho. But throughout these several ages, the power of access to the Sibylline books seems gradually to have been more and more extended. As the number of the Decemviri was by degrees en- larged, first to ten, and afterwards to fifteen persons, so the very care which was used to pre- serve the oracles from adulteration, tended to spread the knowledge of their contents. It has been recorded by Dionysius*, that with the ordi- nary guardians of these books, trusty persons were associated, without whom it was not per- mitted that any inspection of the oracles should be made. " Kai ^r^fjioma avroig Tra^aKaBi(XTy)(nv, wv " -ywjotg, ovK iTn(TKi\peiq tojv 'X^pjjorjutov roiq av^paai " 7roia(T0at." But as the priests were employed by Augustus to transcribe the books, it is suffi- ciently evident that their contents would thus also become more generally known; while Diof seems to have asserted that Nero himself exer- cised his power of rejecting various portions, which he imagined not to be authentic. There * Dionysius Halicarn. lib. iv. p. 2G0. f Dio, lib. Ivii. p. 615. 159 can be little doubt, tlierefbre, that from the time of Nero, many of the most remarkable predic- tions contained in these books, must have been known to a considerable number of persons; and it is equally probable, that the passages most generally known, must have formed the nucleus for those books of the Sibyls which we now possess. Livy has so frequently mentioned the inspection of the Sibylline books, on account of prodigies which were supposed to have occurred, or evils which were apprehended*, that this frequent custom, combined with the subsequent increase of the inspectors of these books to the number of forty, while they still retained the title of Quindecemviri, must have tended to make the greater portion of their contents familiar to many among the citizens of Rome. Since, there- fore, some of the contents of the present books have been constantly appealed to, and quoted by authors who were not only prior to the destruc- tion of the temple, under Honorius, but to the destruction of Jerusalem, this fact combines with others to render it probable, that some part of * Livy, lib. ii. iii. iv. v. vi. &c. 160 the second collection of Sibylline verses has sur- vived, and that the combination of these remains, with other pseudo-prophetic lines, which were current among the Romans, required only the additions, which have evidently been made by Christians, to form the present collection. There is, indeed, strong internal evidence, that several of the books are the production of different authors ; not only from the recurrence of the same lines in different places, but from the dif- ferent computation of the ages which has been made use of. Thus, although the four first books all concur in reckoning the present duration of the world to be for ten ages, or Teveai, they, nevertheless, differ in their division of the several portions of this space. While six of these ages are reckoned in the first book, up to the time of Shem *, the second book reckons the beginning of the tenth Tevm, to have been coincident with the coming of the Saviour f . In the third book ^, on the contrary, the period immediately subsequent to the destruction of Babel, is reckoned as the com- * P. 182. t P- 193. 197. X Sihyll. Orac. lib. iii. p. 225. 161 mencement of the tenth age ; while the author of the fourth book *, adopting the same compu- tation of ten FevEoi, from the commencement to the end of all things, makes the signs of the last period to synchronize with the conquest of Judaea by Titus. It would appear, that neither the first nor the fourth books can be referred to a much later period than that of Titus ; because it must be admitted, that the usual characteristic of pre- tended prophecy, relative to any series of events, is, that it reaches to the time of the writer. Thus it is very improbable that the destruction of the temple by Titus should be commemorated, but that no notice should be taken of the subse- quent structure of Adrian, had the author lived to see that profanation accomplished. For this reason it would seem that the author of the fifth book, who evidently lived during, or shortly after, the time of Adrian f , must have been dif- ferent from the compiler of the book which pre- cedes it. The sixth book differs from the others with regard to Jerusalem ; and the seventh * P. 287. 294. t Sibyll. Orac. lib. v. p. 305. Y 162 appears to have been by another author, as may be seen by a comparison of the lines which relate to Ethiopia, with those which occur in the fifth book * on the same subject. The eighth book, which is especially filled with allusions to the Apocalypse, and the narra- tive of the Gospels, has the same reference to the name of Adrian f , which is made use of in the fifth book ; but from the style of the description, it would seem to have been written after the death of that emperor, who, had he still lived, would have been spoken of in more courteous terms ; and in this respect the other passage which mentions his name, appears, from the flat- tering terms in which it is expressed, to have been written while he was yet in power. If, therefore, there be cause to suppose that these verses have been added together by different writers, it might be expected that the proportion of the more ancient lines, which they might con- tain, would be less than that of the pseudo-pro- phecies, which were more commonly known, * S. O. p. 317. t Lib. viii. p. 367- 163 because there was no restriction as to their peru- sal. Thus, in the third book, the line — " Mr) Kirei Kafiapiyay, aKiyrjToe y«p afien'cjv," appears to have been known proverbially in the time of Augustus ; and we may suppose that, in the same manner, many of the various pseudo- prophetic lines, which, as we learn from Livy, were current among the Romans, would be engrafted into the books of the Sibyl. Hence but few passages belonging to the older records can be expected to remain among those which we now possess ; and if, nevertheless, some lines may be identified with the books of Enoch, we may infer, that had the whole collection remained, the proof of identity, thus to be obtained, would have been far more ample. That some of these passages, which relate to the coming of a king, are among the number of those which have probably re- mained uninjured, may be inferred from the frequent assurance, which we have, that some such passages did formerly exist. Cicero * proposed, that since the Sibyl was useful rather for the suppression of errors in reli- * Cic. dc Divin. lib. i. Y 2 164 gion, than for the proposition of new doctrines, " the priests should be desired to propose from *' these books any other measure tlian that of " appointing a king." The fact mentioned by Suetonius is also well known. He relates*, that L.Cotta declared that it was the opinion of the Quindecemviri, that Caesar should be appointed king, since it was contained in the Sibylline books, that the Parthians could not be conquered, save by a king : and Plutarch f also mentions the same circumstance. It must then be extremely probable, that in the several well known passages in which Tacitus J and Sue- tonius § mention that expectation of a king who should arise, which was spread through all the countries of the East, they referred to the Sibyl- line books, as the " antiqueeliterse," from whence this expectation was derived. If, therefore, either in the Sibylline books, or in the fourth Eclogue of Virgil, we meet with any passages relating to this subject, which appear to resemble some which are to be found in Enoch, it may not unreasonably be supposed, that any passage * Suet, in Jul. Cass. c. 79." f Plutarch in C. Caesare. X Tacitus, lib. v. cap. 13. § Suetonius in Vespas. c. 4. 165 which was formerly attributed to the Sibylline books, and which now appears to exist in Enoch, was, in fact, originally derived from the latter, together with other passages which still exist in both compositions, although it cannot now be found among the Sibylline remains. As it seems probable that those portions of these books, which were composed by Christians, may have been added to them in the earlier part of the second century, it can hardly be supposed that any person, whose object it was, either at that, or a later period, to produce a work which might be taken for the ancient Sibylline verses, would have designedly quoted a book, which had but recently been seen ; or that, in any case, he would have quoted writings which were already known under the name of Enoch. This name alone, whether the credit of the book were gene- ral or not, would tend to show that passages taken from that work could not rightly be ascribed to the Sibyls. Still less would it be probable that the forger of the book of Enoch, in the second century, should add to his composi- tion, verses already known as belonging to the Sibylline books. 166 Thus our supposition will be strengthened, that the books of Enoch may have been sufficiently ancient to have supplied the materials for the second collection of the legates, who were sent to the East to recover the lost verses ; and this being the case, the coincidence of any remains of that collection with the present book of Enoch, will be at once a guide as to the age of those remaining portions, and a testimony of the anti- quity of the book with which they are found to agree. As in former instances, so in the present case also, I conclude that the priority of the book which I have endeavoured to restore, to the com- positions with which it has been intermingled, being admitted ; quotations, which show that the latter were extant at an early period, may be made use of, without ascribing any authority to them, merely for the purpose of collateral evi- dence with regard to the former existence of the earlier and less apocryphal book. The first passage of this sort which occurs, is in the first book *. I have endeavoured to trans- * Opsopsei Sibyll. Orac. p. 1G7. 167 late both this and the subsequent lines as lite- rally as the difference of idiom will allow, for the purpose of comparison with the parallel passages of the book of Enoch. Avrap £iri tovtoiq vTrthe^aro oevrepoi' avdig, Twi' icaTa\ei(j)d£VT(i)y re SiKaiOTaruyv avdpujTrojp, AWo ysvog rsvtiev ttoXvttoikiXov, oiq ejX£jxr]\ei', Epy' epara, mzovdai te KuXai, /cat vireipo)(OQ aiSujg Kai TzvKiytj (to(I)U], re^vag Se fXEv e^rjincricray, HaPTOiag evporreg fir]-)^ayiag sTravoiag. Kat ng f-iev yaiav apoTpoig e^svps yeojpyeiv. AXXoc, TSKrau'eiy, aXXw ce irXeiy fiefxeXrjro, AXXtt) o' acrrpovofxeiy Kai oveipoTroXtiy ra Trereir'a, ^apixaKir) ^' oXXw, avrap jj-ayiKj] TraXii' aXXo), AXXoi ^e aXXa EKaara ^e^TjXore t£')q>(i)ovto, Vpypopoi aXfiarrjpeg, ETriovvfiu^g fxtre^oyreg Tavrrfg, on (ppeaiy aKVfiavTOV voov tiypy. ATrXr)Toy re Sefjiug arijoapoi yutyoXot re Kai eiSei, Hcray ojnog, efxoXoy h' vtto rapraptoy hofxay, aiyoy AecTfioig appijKroig Trt^vXay/xt vot e^aTroTKrai Eic y£)'faj' fxaXepov Xa(opov irvpog aKfxaroio.^' But when their fathers died, a second race, (The just among mankind no longer found) Succeeded, various in pursuits ; their cares Of love; adornments elegant, refined In outward show, with each device to please. For every work their busy wisdom found Appliances ; to plough the earth, to form War's iron weapons, or to view the stars : While others drew their auguries from birds. The magic or the healing arts were sought, As each, in several preference, desired. 168 " Inventors called, and Watchers, to whose minds " No rest from toil, no pause from thought was known. " Though huge their bodies, vast, with countenance " Of strength, yet deep immersed in Tartarus, " Prisoned in fetters inexpugnable, they groan " Through painful ages of unceasing fire." Enoch, Book of Watchers, p. 7, (Translation.) " Moreover, Azaziel taught men to make " swords, knives, shields, breastplates; the fabri- " cation of mirrors, and the workmanship of " bracelets and ornaments ; the use of paint, the " beautifying of the eyebrows, the use of stones " of every valuable and select kind : so that the " world became altered, impiety increased, for- " nication multiplied, and they transgressed and " corrupted all their ways. Amazarak taught " the solution of sorcery, Barkayal taught the " observers of the stars, Akibeel taught signs, " Tamiel taught astronomy, and Asaradel taught " the motion of the moon." P. 9. " Again, the Lord said unto Raphael, " bind Azaziel hand and foot, cast him into dark- " ness, and opening the desert which is in " Dudael, cast him in there. Throw upon him " hurled and pointed stones, covering him with " darkness. There shall he remain for ever ; 169 " cover his face that he may not see the light, " and in the great day of judgment, let him be '* cast into the fire." " To Gabriel also the Lord said, Go, and de- " stroy the children of fornication, the offspring " of the Watchers, from among men." These passages do not exactly agree, but their similarity is sufficient to show that they must have had a common source ; while there are several internal marks, which show that Enoch must have been the original. It will be observed, that in Enoch, the punish- ment sent upon earth, is ascribed to that wicked- ness of mankind, which is previously mentioned ; while in the Sibylline book, the portion relating to the sins of that age being omitted, the latter part of the description has become inconsistent with that which precedes it. But it is also evident, that the meaning of the original was misunderstood by the transcriber, who, looking only to the immediate context, imagined that the inhabitants of the earth were called Watchers ; whereas this name has, in fact, been ascribed, in the book of Enoch, only to the fallen angels themselves. Yet we can attribute z 170 this name of Watchers to no other source but Enoch ; for the united labours of the " critici sacri" seem to agree in this result, referring only to this very fragment, which was extant in the Greek. The passages of the book of Daniel * where, in our translation, this word is used, have in the Hebrew, according to all Kennicott's Co- dices, the word H'^, which the LXX, according to most manuscripts, repeated without translation, using the word £ip; from which it would appear, that they were themselves uncertain of the pre- cise meaning of the term. Our translators have supplied it partly from Theodotian, who gives for the synonym, " A-yycXov;" and partly from the Scholia, one of which has " To Etf>, ovSev srspov jj " E-yprjyoptttc Kai aypvirvog ;"' while, according to another, " Avn rovg Etjo, oi, AyyeXov r]pfir\vi.vaav' " ot T£ XotTTot, Ey/or/yopov." — " Some have under- " stood by the Etp, an angel ; but others, a " watcher." Still, however, it is sufficiently evident, from the context of this chapter of the book of Daniel, that the word, whatever its meaning might be, * Dan. iv. 13. 17. &c. 171 could not mean human beings ; and it therefore follows, that the author of the Sibylline book could not have taken the expression from the book of Daniel, since he not only applies it to men, but finds a fanciful reason for its adoption, in the actions of the persons to whom he alludes. The context of this passage of Enoch shows how the misapplication of this term may have arisen, since the offspring of the Watchers are there mentioned as men ; and thus the united evidence arising from the general similarity of the two passages, from the incomplete state of the copy, in which an omission has occurred, and from the use of the name of Watchers, with a derivation which does not really belong to it, all combine to assure us that these lines of the Sibyl must have been taken from one of these books, under the name of Enoch. The Sibylline verses which follow those which I have transcribed, contain an account of the slaughter which should occur in the generations succeeding that which had been already men- tioned ; while, in the book of Enoch, the passage last quoted is continued by an account of the z2 172 mutual slaughter of the offspring of the Watch- ers ; thus adding another point of similarity to those of which I have already taken notice. In the second Sibylline book* another instance occurs, in which also it appears, that several lines must have been imitated from Enoch. " HyiKa S' adavaTov deov acpdiTOi ayyeXTrjpeg " EpaKiT)\, PafinjX, OvptrfX, Sa/ii?/X, Ai^a»/\ te " Avroi eiriara^Evoi oaa rig KaKa Trpvadei' €pet,£y " AvdpOJTTWV," K. T, \. " But when the immortal angels of the Eter- " nal God, Erakiel, Ramiel, Uriel, Samiel, and " Azael, themselves knowing how many evil " things each of mankind had already done," &c. If these names are compared with those which occur at the 6th and 7th pages of the translation of Enoch, it will be seen that they are all to be found there ; while the coristruction of the names is, of itself, a sufficient proof that they are of Hebrew origin. In Enoch, the words are as follows : " Then " Michael and Gabriel, Raphael, Surayal, and * Ed. Opsopaei, p. 203. 173 " Uriel, looked down from heaven, and saw the " quantity of blood which was shed upon earth, " and all the iniquity which was done in it," &c. But in the Sibylline book, although the names above-mentioned are given as being those of the angels of God, they appear to have been taken indiscriminately from among the names both of good and bad angels, mentioned in Enoch ; while the use of the name of Azael, or Azazel, as that of a good angel, is conclusive as to the writer's ignorance of Hebrew tradition ; since this is the very name which, even from the time of Moses, had been known to the Hebrews, as associated with sin in the scape-goat. The commentators have, I believe, considered the word '^tKTJ^, Azazel, " to be compounded of " ty caper, and '7T^J abiit;" and a tradition is generally referred to concerning a mountain, in the neighbourhood of Sinai, which went by this name, as that from whence the scape-goat was cast down. However this may be, it is sufficiently appa- rent, from the manner in which the name is used in Enoch, in accordance with Hebrew tradition, 174 as applied to one of the fallen angels, that in the book of Enoch, the original of these two passages is to be found ; since no one acquainted with the etymology of the name which he was using, could have applied it to one of the chief angels of God. It may be remarked also, that in the Greek version of those fragments of Enoch, in which this passage is contained, an enumeration of the attributes of God, in power and justice, immediately follows ; and this happens also in the Sibylline book ; while, in the translation of Enoch from the Ethiopic, another short passage intervenes. Thus it appears probable, that these lines were taken from the Greek version of Enoch. In the next page of the second book follow some lines, which appear also to have been de- rived from the same source. " Kat rac ev iziXaytaaiv airwiXeaE Kv^a daXcKrarj^ " H2' OTToaag di]peQ Kai epTrera cat ■n-ereyjpa, " QoiPTjaayro, o\ac ravTac em /3?jjua KaXscTCTei." " Then those whom in its billows hath the sea " Destroyed, and whomsoever the wild beasts, " Or serpents, or the vultures have devoured, " Each shall he call, to stand before his throne." The parallel passage of Enoch is subjoined. 175 '^ * And it shall be, that those who have been " destroyed in the desert, and who have been " devoured by the fish of the sea, and by wild " beasts, shall return and trust in the day of " the elect one." It will hardly be imagined that the combina- tion of the fish of the sea, the wild beasts, and the creatures peculiar to arid countries, could, in both of these passages, be fortuitous. Near the end of the second book f, the follow- ing lines are found, as part of a description of the happiness of the righteous : " K'ovK £T epei TiQ oXwg, vv'^ rjXdei', ovSe fJL£%> avpiov, " Ovic ex^EC yeyovey, ovk rf^iara ttoXKu ^lepifxi'tiyv " Ov hvGLv, ayaTo\r)i', TroirjfTEi yap jxaKpov rjfxap, " Tote Kai o iravTOKparuyp Qtoq acpdiroc aWo irape^ei, " lLvaE(3e(nv oirorav Qeov a^dirov airrjaovTat," '• None shall say night hath come, nor morrow cometh, " Nor days have passed ; no days of toiling care " No sunset and no sunrise, one vast day, " God ruling all eternal, shall ordain, " For thus the righteous shall beseech the Lord." In Enoch % we find, "Nor shall the days of " the saints be numbered, who seek for light Trans, p. 05. f Ed. Opsopsei, p. 212. + Trans, p. 58, 59. Sib. Orac. 176 '' and obtain righteousness with the Lord of " spirits. Peace be to the saints with the Lord " of the world. There shall be light intermi- " nable, nor shall they enter upon the enume- " ration of time, for darkness shall be previously " destroyed, and light shall increase before the " Lord of spirits; before the Lord of spirits " shall the light of uprightness increase for " ever. Although we find no absolute quotation in this instance, it is yet difficult to conceive that one of these passages has not been imitated from the other, especially as the passage of Enoch, like the Sibyl, is, " concerning the saints and the " elect." In the third book these lines occur * : Av0' wf eirra ■)(^poywv SeKaSag yr) tcapirodoreipa, " Effrqt eprjfios airaaa aeQev, i:ai davfiara arjKov. " AXXa fxev eiq ayuQoio reXoQ, vat So^a fieyiffrr], " iic ETriKpciye deog aoi Kai pporog." " Wherefore, for seventy times, your fruitful land " Shall lie deserted, and your glorious house ; " Yet shall your end be good, your glory great ; " For thee, though mortal, thus hath God ordained." In the apocryphal " Testaments of the Twelve * P. 239. 177 " Patriarchs," the elate of which, as I have al- ready observed, is early in the second century, the following words occur, in the Testament of Levi * : — " Kot vvv £v j3ij3Xtw Evw^, on ip^Of^iriKOVTa fpoo- ** ^toSac rr\av>]dr](yea9£, Kcn Tr]v iep(i)(Tvvr}v ptpr/Xwo-Erc, ** Kui rag Ovaiag /xiaiveiTS, k.t.X. Ewe avrog iraXiv " eTnaKS\ptTai Kai oiKTaprjaag 7rpoa^it,erai viiag, ev " iriaTH Kai vdari. " And now I know, from the book of Enoch, " that you will err for seventy weeks, and you " will profane the priesthood, and defile the "sacrifices, until he again shall look upon you, '' and pitying you, shall receive you in faith and " baptism." This appears to have been collected from the Book of History f, in borrowing from which, however, the author of the Testaments has taken the number of seventy shepherds, to represent the duration of the weeks foretold by the Prophet Daniel ; and as the Sibylline book has followed this example, it appears that the quotation of the Sibyl has not been taken directly from Enoch, * Fabr. Codex Pseudepigraphus, vol. i. p. 581. t Translation, p. 125—133. A a 178 but from the Testaments. The motive of the writer must have been to draw from this source a portion of what he supposed to be an ancient prophecy ; from whence it appears that the book of Enoch itself was not within his reach, or he would, doubtless, have quoted from it with greater correctness. Yet almost immediately subsequent to this passage is another, which ap- pears to have been derived from the prophecy of Enoch itself, and thus we should appear to arrive at a contrary conclusion. But if, as I have al- ready suggested, it be probable that portions of the book of Enoch were among the collection of Sibylline verses before the Christian era, we shall only infer, that the passage which follows has been preserved through that independent channel. As the prophecy, indeed, with which this pas- sage agrees, whatever may be its authority, contains a view of the events of every successive age, and as the circumstances there mentioned, as well as the computation made use of, are quite inconsistent with the Book of History, we must necessarily infer, that the whole of it could not have been within the knowledge of the same 179 writer, who made the previous quotation ; and thus we have at least internal evidence of the existence of some original document, of which the following lines contain a remnant : — ** Kai TOTE Br) deog ovpauodav Treixipei (iaaiXija, " KpivEi ^' avcpa eKUGTOv ev aifiari Kai Trvpog avyr}. " EoTi ^£ TLg (j)v\rj j3a(n\eiOQ, rjg yevoQ earuL " ATrraioTOVj icai tovto ')^poyoLQ TrepiTeXkoiuevoKXi " Ap^ei, Kai Kaivov an^Kov deov apS,eT eyeipeiy." " Then from the heaven shall God send forth a king, " To judge each soul in blood and flashing fire. " Yet hath the king a portion, who unblamed " Shall rule throughout predestinated times, " And newly shall begin God's house to build." In the prophecy of Enoch, it is said * : '' Afterwards shall there be another week, the " eighth, of righteousness, to which shall be " given a sword to execute justice and judgment " upon all oppressors. Sinners shall be deli- " vered up into the hand of the righteous, who, " during its completion, shall acquire habita- " tions by their righteousness; and the house of " the great king shall be built up for ever." The first line of the Sibyl appears to have been taken from another passage, where it is said, * Translation, p. 140. Aa 2 180 that " the elect one shall sit upon the throne of "his glory;" but what follows, although not identical in expression, is so similar in arrange- ment to the part of Enoch which I have subjoined to it, that 1 think the identity of the origin of both can hardl}'^ be doubted ; for it will be ob- served, that in both cases the punishment of the wicked, the dominion of the righteous, and the building of the house of God, follow each other in the same order. The celebrated lines which foretel the destruc- tion of Samos and of Rome, are found in the third and also in the eighth book ; thus not only affording, by this repetition, an evidence that these books were compiled by two different authors, but likewise tending towards the same conclusion from the difference of arrangement in the two instances in which these lines occur. In both cases the names of Rome, of Samos, and of Delos, are mentioned ; but in the eighth book, the last line is incomplete : and while this passage, in the third book, appropriately closes an allusion to the city of Rome, it is added in the eighth, without much apparent connexion, 181 to some lines which relate to Syria and to Egypt. But if this prediction were extant before the Christian era, the supposition that it was derived from documents such as those which are con- tained in Enoch, will account for the terms in which it is expressed : * " Eorai Kai ^afxog, afijxoq, eorai kui AijXoq ahjXog, " Kai Pwjitr;, pvfxr). Ta re deafpara irayra reXftrat." " Samos a sandy desert shall become, " Delos unknown, and Rome a ruin shall be. " So shall each word prophetic be fulfilled." If the author of these lines had derived them from any writing which he supposed to be an authentic prophecy, he might be expected to repeat the general purport of that prophecy, although he might not make any exact quotation from it. But the destruction of the most celebrated temples of antiquity, the silence of the Oracles of Delos and of Samos, combined with the ruin of that city, whose temporal power was the greatest of the ancient world, present to the mind an emphatic picture of general desolation, over- * Sibyll. Orac. p. 244. 182 whelming at once the most sacred temple of the priest, and the strongest citadel of the warrior. It may be concluded, therefore, that these lines have reference to that destruction, M^hich is im- plied in the accounts elsewhere given, of the last age of the world ; that universal destruction, predicted in the book of Enoch, wherein both the knowledge and the works of man should find their common end, " melting like a honeycomb " in the flame." And the probability that Enoch was the prototype of such passages, becomes the greater, from our ignorance of any other source from which authors, to whom the Scriptures were unknown, could have derived them. N We may refer also to the same origin that description of the last age of the world, which occurs at the beginning of the third Sibylline book *, as well as that which, at the beginning of the eighthf, appears either to have been imi- tated from the former, or to have been taken from some original common to both. The latter of these passages has, however, some resem- blance to the conclusion of the book of Enoch, as * Sibyll. Orac. p. 220. - f ^^'^'^' P- 379. 183 I hav^e endeavoured to restore it. It will be seen that I have been unable to translate these lines literally, but I have endeavoured to exjDress their general sense : " AXXa TOT ovpayirj otuv r) X"P'£ efil^affiXeverri, " Kat OTTOTUP Traig ttoQ' lepog, ^oXocjxov aivokvTMV, " EsoXfo/ CeajxoiQ oXooippova pv(T(Tov avoiywy, " Ai(j)piSios TE fipoToiQ ^vXiyov Sofiog a^(j)iicaXvipei." " When that celestial grace shall bear the rule, " And when a sacred child shall fill with chains " The iniquitous abyss, expanding wide " Its gates ; when those, by subtlety deceived, " Or violence slain, triumphant shall be free ; " All unawares the fragile house shall fall, " And mortals perish with mortality." In Enoch it is said*, " He sat upon the throne " of his glory, and the principal part of the "judgment was assigned to him, the Son of " man. Sinners shall disappear and perish from " the face of the earth, while those who seduced " them shall be bound with chains for ever. " According to the ranks of their corruption shall " they be imprisoned, and all their works shall " disappear from the face of the earth. " Every thing wicked shall disappear, and depart " from before his face." * Translation, p. 81. 184 The occurrence of a similar passage in the fourth book * makes it the more probable that some prototype existed previous to the time at which this compilation was made ; and, as I have already noticed, with relation to supposed oracles, which had been well known among the Romans, it is probable that the remains of the earlier Sibylline books may be recognised by this mark of their double insertion in those which we now possess. Thus it would seem, that there must have been some foundation for the belief of Lactantius, that both Varro and Apollodorus had characterized the Erythrean Sibyl as " prgeter " caeteras prsecipuam et nobilem ;" since the only portions of the book of Enoch, which we have traced in these verses, are found among those which have been ascribed to her name, or which, in other words, were supposed to belong to those fragments, which were obtained in the East, as the materials for the second Sibylline collection. When we consider the united testimony of these different passages coinciding with each * Translation, p. 299. 185 other in the books of the Sibyl and of Enoch, it will be admitted, that from hence, the authority of any other testimony which may tend towards the conclusion of the ancient existence of the book of Enoch, is very much strengthened. And if we find a difficulty in accounting for the existence of fragments of prophecy, concerning the coming of the Saviour, in the books of the Sibyls ; we derive, at least, from this book of Enoch the means of pointing out a channel through which such knowledge might be con- veyed, to one who was ignorant of the canonical Scriptures. If, then, the doctrines alkided to in the fourth Eclogue of Virgil, were confessedly obtained from the Sibyl ; and if the " ultima Cumaei ** carminis tetas," must necessarily have referred to the concluding period in some sequence of the several ages of the world, contained according to the account of Virgil himself, in the Sibylline books ; it will then follow that if that calculation of ages should appear to agree with the remark- able calculation of the book of Enoch, there must be very strong presumptive evidence, that the Sibylline verses were derived from that book. Bb 186 It is true that the most usual, and most gene- rally received division, among the Hebrews, and those to whom their traditions extended, was that of seven millenary periods ; but it will be seen that this is also in accordance with the com- putation of the book of Enoch, which consists of ten weeks, as they are called in the translation from the Ethiopic, each consisting of seven hun- dred years, and thus making up the same sum total as that of the seven millenary periods. Fabricius observes *, that it was the opinion of the learned Vossius, that Juvenal, in the fol- lowing well known lines, must have referred to the calculation of the Sibylline books. " Nona aetas agitur, pejoraque saeciila ferri *' Temporibus, quoniam sceleri non invenit ipsa " Nomen, et a nullo posuit natura metallo." " The ninth age passes on, a period worse " Than that of iron ; for whose wickedness " Nature no name hath found, no metal made." It is evident that the poet must have meant to represent the tenth, as the final age ; and while we are aware of the source from which he might have obtained this computation, it will * Bib. Graec. i. j). 18G. 187 hardly be imagined that the description can have arisen merely from the fertility of his fancy, in augmenting the five ages mentioned by Hesiod. The same observation will be still more appli- cable to the testimony afforded by Virgil on this subject ; because it is not only probable that he must himself have had some previous knowledge of the 'computation which he mentions, but it will also be seen that the whole structure of his eulogium makes it necessary to assume that an allusion has been made to some common and generally received opinion. Beautifully modulated as the expressive strains of the fourth Eclogue are, they would yet have failed of their efiect had they only conveyed to the ear a poet's hope, unsupported by that tradi- tion which prepared his hearers to understand and to appreciate their allusions. Had not the prediction been familiar to all around, his pro- mise that the unborn infant should be the author of some yet unheard of and unexpected state of felicity on earth, would have been as uninterest- ing, as it must have seemed improbable. But the belief of those to whom the verses were ad- B b 2 188 dressed, formed the ground-work of the poet's fiction ; and the force of his poetry was effectual, in proportion to the assurance which was im- pressed upon the mind of every auditor, that the melody of verse was only used to enhance the dignity of an ancient and authentic pre- diction. Even if we had not a distinct reference to the Sibylline verses, the " Cumeeum carmen/' we could scarcely imagine that the words of Hesiod could have been the source from which the expressions of Virgil were drawn, because the order of the ages in Hesiod is not only reversed by the poet, but he has referred to some future course of ages, about to commence with the arrival of the last age of the Sibyl. The allu- sion which, as I suppose, is made to the fable of Astrea, in the words " Jam redit et Virgo," seems to be but the ornament given by an ima- ginative mind, to the detail of the two previous lines, in which the facts predicted are referred to: " Ultima Cumaei venit jam carminis setas ; " Magnus ab integro saeclorum nascitur ordo." That the poet must have referred to the tenth, 189 as being the last age, appears from the compu- tation used in the four first Sibylline books, as well as from the expressions which are there twice repeated, as to the final period. " ApdpiOTTOiQ oaa vvv re Kai OTriobiaa yiverai avdic, " Ek TrpwrrfQ yzver]Q w^pig ivhzKaTr]Q afiiceadai, " ArpeKebJc KuraXe^at *." " The things which are, and those which yet shall be, " Successive, from the first to th' eleventh age, " Truly to tell to mortals." At first sight it might indeed appear, as has been observed by Fabricius t, that these lines were inconsistent with the assertion which follows them : " A\Xa ra jxev SsKarri yeyey f^a\a Trapra reXeirat." " In the tenth age these things shall all conclude." But if we compare these lines with a passage of the prophecy of Enoch, their apparent incon- sistency is explained by the latter. " And on the seventh day of the tenth week " there shall be an everlasting judgment, which " shall be executed on the Watchers." — " After- * Sibyll. Orac. p. 287. t Fab. Bib. Grsec. i. p. 185. 190 " wards there shall be many weeks, which shall " eternally exist in goodness and in righteous- " ness." Thus as the tenth week, or age, is said to be concluded by the judgment, this statement agrees with the declaration, that " in the tenth " age all these things shall be finished ;" while, on the other hand, the many weeks which, it is said, shall afterwards exist, may, without any inconsistency, be spoken of as the eleventh age. But as it does not appear in what other manner these two statements can be reconciled, it be- comes the more probable, that they may have been compiled from the book, which, when re- ferred to, so simply explains their meaning. By this reference, the term of magui menses, which otherwise appears so obscure, is found to agree with the declaration, that, '* Magnus ab integro saeclorum nascitur ordo ;" for as the former expression may probably relate to the " many weeks which should eternally " exist" after the closing of the tenth week; so the latter may be taken to express very correctly the long duration, which should succeed " ab 191 " integro sjeclorum ;" when the ten previous weeks, or ages, were completely fulfilled ; and when it niight be added, that, " Incipient magni procedere menses." We have, indeed, no proof beyond the refer- ence of Virgil himself, that he had seen the Sibylline verses; but, I think, it will appear that there is a strong presumption, from the result of a comparison of the passages to which I have referred, not only that he drew this calculation from the books to which he ascribes it, but that it must have been obtained from the East, when the collection, under the name of the Sibyl, was made, and that it had been originally copied from the more ancient book of Enoch. However inconclusive some of the foregoing evidences may appear when taken singly, yet as the probability, which I have sought to esta- blish, must arise from the agreement of many coincidences, rather than from any direct testi- mony, I have thought that they might strengthen that which maybe called circumstantial evidence, as derived from the unconscious agreement of various writers. 192 As I have endeavoured to shew that the Her- metic oracles of Chaldea were, in all probability at least, mingled with these books of Enoch, if they were not composed of them, so it has ap- peared also that the second Sibylline collection, having been formed from those materials which the Chaldean or Egyptian priests supplied, there is much reason to conclude that whatever prophe- cies the later Sibylline books contained, were de- rived from the same ancient sources. But since it can hardly be doubted that coincidences between the present Sibylline verses, and the books of Enoch, have been pointed out in the foregoing pages, it would seem that these coincidences cannot be more simply or naturally accounted for, than by the suppositions which I have already stated ; so that we thus have the inde- pendent testimony of several authors in succes- sive ages, to substantiate our conclusion, that at least the more ancient portions of the book of Enoch, must have subsisted prior to the Chris- tian sera. Having now concluded my attempt to trace the various instances of apparent coincidences, which exist between portions of the books of Enoch, r'TM 193 and compositions under the name of Hermes, or of the Sibyls, as well as the apocryphal testa- ments of the patriarchs, and the foregoing pas- sages of Virgil ; I shall add a few observations on those subsequent verses, which I have placed after the book on the future judgment, and in which an apparent prophecy, whether true or false, is contained. Without offering any opinion on this point, I shall endeavour to trace such internal evidence as may tend towards either of these conclusions. That probability which I have already endea- voured to establish, from whence we might ascribe an ancient date to these writings, must indeed be a necessary addition to our estimate, before we can come to any conclusion favourable to the genuineness of this composition. But for the present we will look merely to the con- tents of these verses, in order to see whether we can collect from them any evidence of falsehood, or observe in their structure any probable marks of truth. In the first place we may remark the singular fact, that the duration of the world is here as- sumed to be seven thousand years, and I think c c 194 it will be found in perusing the observations on chronology, which are added at the conclusion of this volume, that there is much reason to infer from the use of this millenary calculus, a far earlier period of composition than that which has been usually assumed as the time at which this opinion originated. Jt will be found also that some singular coin- cidences arise, from the comparison of the prophetic numbers mentioned in the Scrip- ture, with the dates assigned by this book to the duration of the religion of Christ previous to the millenium, and to that subsequent period itself. It may be questioned whether the expression used by St. Jude, when he calls Enoch the seventh from Adam, may not have been taken from the first of these verses : — " I have been born the seventh in the first week." It is at any rate apparent that St. Jude must either have referred generally to this expression, or that he must have reckoned the number of years from Adam to Enoch, according to the Hebrew cal- culation ; for as to the succession of persons, Enoch was not the seventh, but the sixth from 195 Adam, since this mode of speaking forbids us to include Adam himself in our calculation. But as to time, in which sense this expression is cer- tainly used in the present verse, Enoch was the seventh, as he was born a few years after the completion of the sixth century of the world. From this verse up to the end of the eleventh verse, or the conclusion of the sixth week, it would be easy for any author of the second century to assign the dates of the various actions by which he might be inclined to charac- terize each successive week. Still, however, it would be remarkable that any Jewish author of that period should pass so slightly over the ancient glories of his nation, or fail to embody in his prophetic calendar some of those recol- lections of the former wealth and power of Israel, which must have been equally interest- ing to him, whether he had been converted to Christianity or not. But on the contrary, the events which have been selected seem only to have reference to the Messiah, in the gradual preparations which were made for the coming of Him who was " to fill his house with " o;lorv. ' c c 2 196 But as the end of the sixth week, or the close of the second century of the Christian sera, is the latest period to which this book can be assigned, on the supposition that it has been a forgery ; we should expect that a Pseudo pro- phet, would either close his prediction at that period, as has been remarked of the Apocryphal Esdras, or that he would add some such inti- mations agreeing with the general opinions of the time at which he lived, as might afford internal evidence of the age during which his writings were composed. The fact, however, is contrary to both these suppositions, for the prophecy purports to reach to the end of the world, and the manner in which the seventh and eighth weeks are spoken of, affords no trace of any such expectations of the approach of that period, as those which we know to have pre- vailed among the Christians of the first three centuries. Whether we suppose this to be a prophecy or a forgery, we may equally assume that from the sixth week, the events referred to must be spiritual and moral changes, and not merely mutations of empire, unconnected with religion. 197 On the latter supposition, the subject would be no longer worthy of our attention ; but if we are inclined to pause ere we pronounce against the possibility that this should be a true predic- tion, the history of the church will afford at least some coincidences which may serve to strengthen our doubt. If indeed it be the extreme of rashness, as it undoubtedly is, to attribute inspiration to any writing upon untenable grounds, or to expect that we shall obtain from assertion, an authority which we cannot substantiate by argument ; so is there also some danger in that frame of mind which would lead us to assert that we already absolutely and certainly possess the whole of that word of God which ever has been, or which ever shall be, revealed to man. It is indeed true that the words of God pass not away, till all shall in their several seasons be fulfilled. But He who, in his inscrutable Providence, appointed that a whole age should elapse before the Apocalypse itself was generally known and recognised as the word of inspira- tion, may have allowed a prophecy of later events, to remain unknown to a later period ; while 198 he cannot have forbidden us to attend to any writing, which at any period may be offered to our consideration, with the same care and reverence, with which the early church succes- sively examined those various documents, from which the canon of our Scriptures was formed, rejecting many, while, on sure evidence, they accepted others. Let it not, therefore, be es- teemed a mark of credulity, that we form such a rule to ourselves as may preserve us from being sceptical, without evidence whereon to ground our scepticism ; and that we inquire as carefully and as reverentially into the balance of evidence on this subject, as if we were assuredly commenting on a certain and undoubted pro- phecy. Till we have proof to the contrary, this will at least involve us in no danger ; since it by no means requires us to assume, or conclude, that the writing which we examine is authentic ; but only to abstain from any levity of expression, and to weigh, humbly and carefully, even the slightest evidence ; lest in the event, for want of such forbearance, " haply we be found to fight *' against God.'' 1 assume then, that if this were a real pro- 199 phecy, it might be expected to relate to the same series of events, as those which are prefigured by St. John in his Apocalypse ; and I take it for granted, that the Apocalypse itself relates to the spiritual and moral changes which should occur during the period of Christianity, and to the various results which these changes should pro- duce among mankind. Let us then compare the circumstances attri- buted to the seventh week, with the events which actually took place during that period (from A.D. 200 to 900). " In the seventh week a perverse generation " shall arise, abundant shall be its deeds, and all " its deeds perverse. During its completion the " righteous, selected from the plant of everlast- " ing righteousness, shall be rewarded ; and to " them shall be given sevenfold instruction " respecting every part of his creation." But this period is similarly characterised in the Apocalypse itself. It is said of the red horse, in the second seal, that power was given to him that sat thereon, to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another; while the emblem of the third 200 seal is, that the yoke of superstition is in the hand of him that sat on the black horse ; and the sell- ing of the spiritual corn and wine and oil, the famine of hearing the word of the Lord, accord- ing to his promise, without money and without price, but too truly agree with the voice of his- tory, from the fourth to the seventh, and from the seventh to the tenth centuries. If I am right in my conclusion from which I assume, in com- mon with many commentators, and especially with the learned Vitringa, that while the seals of the Apocalypse extend from the commence- ment to the end of the prophecy, the trumpets are coincident with the two first of the seals, the denunciations which belong to them, ought also to apply to the events which we are now considering. But the trumpets are, in fact, a record of the perverse or evil deeds of men : for if we omit the first, as belonging to an earlier period than the third century, we find that the se- cond is distinguished by the emblem of a burn- ing mountain, which when cast into the sea turns it to blood. The falling star of the third trumpet embitters the waters, and causes death. •2i)l Under the fourth, the emblematical sun, and moon and stars, are smitten : while in the fifth the abyss is opened, and the figurative locusts which during that period plague the earth, are succeeded by the horsemen of the Euphratean angels, who under the sixth trumpet were pre- pared to slay the third part of men. And while we admit the coincidence of this period with the time when the dragon before cast out, " was " wroth with the woman, and went to make war " with the remnant of her seed, which keep the '* commandments of God, and have the faith of " Jesus Christ," — while w^e admit this synchro- nism, we must assume also, that at this period there should be not a few witnesses for the truth, the seed of those who should afterwards have the victory, the precursors of those who should not only have like these the reward of wisdom, and "sevenfold instruction," but partake of the triumph reserved for the succeeding week of Enoch, a period not less in agreement with the prophecy of the Apocalypse. With regard to the instruction mentioned as synchronizing with the completion of the fore- going week, we must remember that, if the great D d 202 crime of this age, according to the Apocalypse, was that *' they repented not of the works of their ** hands, that they should not worship devils, " aad idols of gold and silver, and brass, and " stone, and of wood, which neither can see, nor " hear, nor speak, nor walk;" so history informs us that from the time of Leo Isauricus onward, there was not wanting a continual testimony against image worship, while we may not doubt that the Waldenses represented in the purity of their doctrine, precursors in former years, from whom they inherited those evangelical truths, which had hitherto been comparatively obscured, by the prevailing ignorance and intolerance of that age *. Yet we shall observe, that neither the Apocalypse nor this book of Enoch set forth to us an immediate succession of truth to error, or a sudden victory over the powers of darkness. The Apocalypse, hiding the more circum- * " Valdenses, a saeculo jam octavo majores suos in Pede- " montanis vallibiis a Romani Pontificis communione se- " junctos vixisse, hoc vero saeculo liberius animum suum pro- " fessos esse, non contemnendis disputant testimoniis. In " Gallia, aliisque regionibus, horum similes hac setate latuisse " aeque certum est." — Moshem. Saec. xi. Pars ii. c. 2. 203 stantial narrative which should succeed to the trumpets, under the symbol of seven thunders, " sealed up and not written," presents us only with the more general prediction of the two seals, which relate to the period from the seventh to the fourteenth centuries. Thus the voice of the fourth seal, calls us to be- hold but the single vision of the mystical death, and Hades, to whom power was given to kill with sword, and hunger, and beasts of the earth. But as this synchronizes with the first part of the eighth week of Enoch, which extends from the beginning of the tenth to the end of the six- teenth century, so the expressions appropriated to that week correspond with it also. *' Afterwards there shall be another week, the " eighth, of righteousness; to which shall be " given a sword to execute justice and judgment *' upon all oppressors. Sinners shall be delivered " up into the hands of the righteous, who during " its completion shall acquire habitations by " their righteousness, and the house of the great " king shall be built up for ever." It will be observed that the first part of this prediction agrees at least in some measure with D d 2 204 that of the Apocalypse. The latter part, which is restricted to the concluding portion, as " during " the completion" of the week, must synchronize with the next seal of the Apocalypse, which takes in the space between the fourteenth and seven- teenth centuries of the Christian aera. The fifth seal represents the souls of former martyrs crying for the vengeance of their blood on them that dwell on the earth. But here, the sealed portion characterized by the thunders, being completed, and that of the vials of wrath having begun, they afford to us the particular description of that which by the seal is only represented in general terms. The first vial brought upon the men which had the mark of the beast, " a noisome and " grievous sore." The second caused the mys- tical sea, to " become as the blood of a dead man;" while the third vial, poured upon the rivers and fountains of waters, turned them to blood ; while justice and judgment upon all oppressors was indeed thus executed. But the parallel prophecy of the Apocalypse is still more explicit, as to the events which should characterize the latter part of this period ; and 205 while it agrees with the declaration that now, '' Sinners should be delivered into the hand of " the righteous," it is remarkable that in the Apocalypse, the " temple of the tabernacle of "■ the testimony in heaven," is represented to be " opened," while in Enoch it is said that now the righteous should acquire habitations by their righteousness, and the house of the great king should be built up for ever. And if we understand this to relate to things spiritual, it may be taken to allude to the re-edification of that " spiritual house," in which those faithful servants, who at this period returned unto " the " living rock disallowed of men," were built " up *' as lively stones,'' a holy priesthood, " to " offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God, " by Jesus Christ." With this metaphorical sense, the expression, that " the house of the Great King shall be built *' up for ever," also agrees, even as in the Apo- calypse it is said of those " which came out of *' great tribulation, and have washed their robes, " and made them white in the blood of the Lamb," " that they are before the throne of God, and " serve him day and night in his temple." 206 The first half of the ninth week corresponds, according to the previous suppositions, with the sixth and seventh of the Apocalyptic seals, and with the fourth and subsequent vials of wrath ; and as the millennial period, subsequent to the coming of the Son of Man, is partly comprehended within this week, the commencement of that period must be the event by which we should expect it to be characterized. This is accordingly the case; for here the former mode of expression, as to the completion of the various weeks is abandoned, and the term of " in the ninth week," is substi- tuted for it. We must infer, that the end of the fourth century of this week is here alluded to, from the synchronysm which is afterwards no- ticed, of the conclusion of the millennial period, with the seventh day of the tenth week; for if we reckon back from this date to the commencement of the thousand years, the time indicated for the commencement also of " the judgment of righ- " teousness," will be that in which the century already mentioned is completed. The terms appropriated to this ninth week are at least sufficiently definite to show some cor- respondence with the expressions of the Apoca- '207 lypse as to this period. If of the judgment of righteousness it be said, that " it shall be re- " vealed to the whole world," so of the coming of the Son of Man it is declared, that " every eye " shall see him." If every work of the ungodly is at this period to " disappear," according to Enoch, " from " the face of the whole earth ;" so, according to the Apocalypse, " former things are passed " away;" while it is also declared, that Satan " should deceive the nations no more till the " thousand years should be fulfilled." Thus, also, the world is here said to be " marked for "destruction," while, in the Apocalypse, the combined symbols of the harvest and the vintage are found to synchronize with the period of the sixth seal, " when every mountain and island " were moved out of their places;" and when, " in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, '* when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of " God should be finished." Nor is the assertion here made, that " all men should seek the path " of righteousness," less consistent with the Apo- calyptical synchronism of the binding of Satan,, with the commencement of the millennium. 208 From hence the transition to the seventh day of the tenth week, as the period of the " ever- '* lasting judgment, which shall be executed " upon the Watchers," leads us to the end of the millennium, of which St. John has said '■' that," when the thousand years are expired, " the Devil '* that deceived them was cast into the lake of " fire ;" while Enoch and the Scripture agree also, that '^ the former heaven shall depart and " pass away;" as in the latter, before him that sat " upon the throne, the earth and the heaven '■' fled away." Lastly, the declaration that " sin " shall not be named there for ever and for " ever," exactly agrees with the prophetic assu- rance, that there shall in no wise enter into the holy city any thing that defileth, neither that worketh abomination. Having thus traced the most obvious of the coincidences which exist between this book and the Apocalypse, I leave this part of the subject without any farther observations, being rather desirous that the reader should examine for him- self the book which follows, than that I should appear to support a theory by my own conclu- sions. THE BOOK OF ENOCH, TO WHICH ARE ADDED PARALLEL PASSAGES FROM THE SCRIPTURES. THE BOOK OF ENOCH. I. The word of the blessing of Enoch, how he blessed the elect and the righteous, who were to exist in the time of trouble ; to the casting away of all the wicked and ungodly. Enoch, a righteous man, who was with God, answered and spoke, while his eyes were open, and he saw a holy vision in the heavens. This the angels shewed me. II. From them I heard all things, and understood what I saw ; that which will not come to pass in this generation, but in a generation which is to succeed at a distant period, on account of the elect. SCRIPTURE PARALLELS. I. Jude 4 and 14. " For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained unto this condemnation. — And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophecied of these." Numbers xxiv. 3. " Balaam the son of Beor hath said, and the man whose eyes are open hath said; He hath said which heard the words of God, which saw the vision of the Almighty, falling into a trance, but having his eyes opeu," &c. Zechariah iv. 1. "The angel that talked with me, came again and waked me, as a man that is wakened out of his sleep," &c. II. Matthew xxiv. 22. "But for the Elect's sake those days shall be shortened;." Colossians i. 26. " Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints." III. Upon their account I spoke and talked with him, who will go forth from his habitation, the Holy and Mighty One, the God of the world : IV. Who will hereafter tread upon Mount Sinai; appear with his hosts ; and be manifested in the strength of his power from heaven. Matthew xxiv, 34, 35. " Verily 1 say unto yoUj this generation shall not pass away till all be ful- filled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pas.s away." III. Ezekiel xxi. 4. '' Therefore shall my sword go forth out of his sheath, against all flesh, from the south to the north." Isaiah xlii. 13. '* The Lord shall go forth as a mighty man, he shall stir up jealousy like a man of war: he shall cry; yea, roar; He shall prevail against his enemies." Zechariah xiv. 1.3. "Behold the day of the Lord Cometh.— Then shall the Lord go forth and fight against these nations." IV. Nehemiah ix. 13. " Thou camest down also upon Mount Sinai, and spakest with them from heaven." Luke ii. 13, 14. "And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men." V. Ail shall be afraid, and the Watchers be ter rified. VI. Great fear and trembling shall seize them, even to the ends of the earth. The lofty mountains shall be troubled, and the exalted hills abased, melting like a honeycomb in the flame. The earth shall be immerged, and all things which are in it perish ; while judgment shall come upon all, even upon all the righteous. V. Jeremiah iv. IG. " Make ye mention to the nations : Behold, publish against Jerusalem, that Watchers come from a far country, and give out their voice against the cities of Judah." VI. Revelation i. 7. " And all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him." Revelation xiv. 20. " And the mountains were not found/' Habakkuk iii. 6. "He stood and measured the earth : He beheld and drove asunder the nations ; And the everlasting mountains were scattered, the perpetual hills did bow : his ways are everlasting." Micah i. 3, 4. " For behold the Lord cometh forth out of his place, and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth. And the mountains shall be molten under him, and the Talleys shall be cleft as wax before the fire." Psalm xcvii. 1.5. " The Lord reigneth : — The hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lord." 2 Peter iii. 7. " But the heavens and the earth which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire, against the day of judgment, and perdition of ungodly men. VIL But to them shall he give peace : he shall pre- serve the elect, and towards them exercise mercy. VIII. Then shall all belong to God; be happy and blessed ; and the brightness of the Godhead shall enlighten them. 1 Peter iv. 18, " And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear ? " Malachi iii. 2. " But who may abide the day of his coming ? and who shall stand when He appeareth ? '^ VII. Isaiah xxvi. 1. 3. "In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah. — Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee." Isaiah Ixv. 9. '' And mine elect shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there." Isaiah liv. 8. " With everlasting kindness will I have mercy upon thee, saith the Lord thy Re- deemer." VIII. Revelation xxi. 4. " And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away." Isaiah Ix. 20. " Thy sun shall no more go down, neither shall thy moon withdraw itself, for the Lord shall be thy everlasting light."' B 10 IX. Behold, he comes with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon them, and destroy the wicked, and reprove all the carnal for every thing which the sinful and ungodly have done, and committed against him. X. Heaven they shall not ascend, nor shall they come on the earth. This shall be the portion of sinners, who deny the name of the Lord of spirits, and who are thus reserved for the day of punish- ment and of affliction. 11 Revelation xxi. 23. " And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof." IX. Jude 14, 15. "And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophecied of these, saying, Behold the Lord cometh -with, ten thousand of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him." X. Revelation xxi. 1. 27. "And 1 saw a new heaven and a new earth. — And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie." Jude i. 4. " Denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ." Hebrews X. 29. "Of how much sorer punish- ment suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing?" 12 XL In that day shall the Elect one sit upon a throne of glory ; and shall choose their conditions and countless mansions, (while their spirits within them shall be strengthened, when they behold my Elect one,) for those who have fled for protection to my holy and glorious name. XII. In that day I will cause my Elect one to dwell in the midst of them ; will change the face ojfhea- ven ; will bless it, and illuminate it for ever. 13 XI. Matthew xxv. 31. 34. " When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory. 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 beginning of the world." John xiv. 2. "In my Father's house are many mansions.'' Isaiah xxv. 9. " And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God ; we have waited for him, and he will save us : this is the Lord ; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation." XII. Revelation xxi. 3. " And I heard a great voice out of heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them." Isaiah Ixv. 17. " Behold, I create new heavens, and a new earth, and the former shall not be re- membered nor come into mind." Isaiah xxx. 26. " Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be seven fold, as the light of seven 14 XIII. I will also change the face of the earth ; will bless it ; and cause those whom I have elected to dwell upon it. But those who have committed sin and iniquity shall not inhabit it; for I have marked their proceedings. My righteous ones will I satisfy with peace, placing them before me ; but the condemnation of sinners shall draw near, that I may destroy them from the face of the earth. XIV. In that day the prayer of the holy and the righ- teous, and the blood of the righteous, shall ascend 15 days, in the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wounds." XIII. 2 Peter iii. 13. " Nevertheless we according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.*' Psalm civ. 35. " Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth." Isaiah xiii. 9. " Behold the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger to lay the land^desolate : and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it." Proverbs xi. 31. "Behold, the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth ; much more the wicked and the sinner." Isaiah Ix. 21. ''Thy people also shall be all righteous, they shall inherit the land for ever." Matthew xxv. 41. '* 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." XIV. Luke xviii. 7, 8. *' And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, 16 from the earth into the presence of the Lord of spirits. XV. In that day shall the holy ones assemble, who dwell above the heavens, and with united voice petition, supplicate, praise, laud, and bless the name of the Lord of spirits, on account of the blood of the righteous which has been shed ; that the prayer of the righteous may not be intermitted before the Lord of spirits ; that for them He would execute judgment ; and that his patience may not endure for ever. XVL At that time I beheld the Ancient* of days, while He sat upon the throne of his glory, while * Literally in the Ethiopic " The head" of Days. 17 though he bear long with them ? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" XV. Revelation vi. 9. "I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held ; and they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, Holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth ? " Revelation xix. 1. "And after these things I heard a great voice of -much people in heaven, saying, Hallelujah ! Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God ! For true and righteous are his judgments, for he hath, judged the great whore which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand." XVL 2 Chronicles xviii. 18. "I saw the Lord sitting upon his throne, and all the host of heaven stand- ing on his right hand and on his left." Daniel vii. 9, 10. "I beheld till the thrones c IS the book of the living was opened in his presence, and while all the powers which were above the heavens stood around and before Him. XVII. Then were the hearts of the saints full of joy, because the consummation of righteousness was arrived, the supplication of the saints heard, and the blood of the righteous appreciated by the Lord of spirits. XVIII. In that hour was this Son of man invoked before the Lord of spirits, and his name in the presence of the Ancient of days. 19 were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool : his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him : thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him : the judgment was set and the books were opened." XVII. Revelation xviii. 20. " Rejoice over her thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets, for God hath avenged you on her." Isaiah xlix. 13. " Sing, O heavens, and be joy- ful O earth, and break forth into singing, O mountains : for the Lord hath comforted his peo- ple, and will have mercy upon his afflicted." XVIII. John v. 22. "The Father judgeth no man, but hatk committed all judgment to the Son, that all men should honour the Son even as they honour the Father." Acts X. 42. " And he commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify that it is he which 20 XIX. Before the sun and the signs were created, be- fore the stars of heaven were formed, his name was called on in the presence of the Lord of spirits. A support shall He be for the righteous and the holy to lean upon, without falling ; and he shall be the light of nations. XX. He shall be the hope of those whose hearts are troubled. All, who dwell on earth, shall fall down and worship before him ; shall bless and glorify Him, and sing praises to the name of the Lord of spirits. 21 was ordained of God to be the judge of the quick and the dead." John xvi. 14. " All things that the Father hath are mine." XIX. John viii. 58. " Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, 1 say unto you, before Abraham was, I am." Colossians i. 17. " And he is before all things, and by him all things consist." Hebrews xiii. 8. " Jesus Christ, the same yes- terday, and to day, and for ever." Psalm cxxiv. 8. " Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.'* Isaiah xliii. 2. " When thou passest through the waters I will be with thee ; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee : when thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burned." Luke ii. 32. "A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel." XX. Matthew ii. 28. " Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Revelation xv. 3, 4. " And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the 22 XXI. Therefore the Elect and -the Concealed one ex- isted in His presence, before the world was cre- ated, and for ever. XXII. In His presence Jie existed, and has revealed to the saints and to the righteous the wisdom of the Lord of spirits ; for he has preserved the lot of the righteous, because they have hated and rejected this world of iniquity, and have detested all its works and ways, in the name of the Lord of spirits. 23 Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works. Lord God Almighty, Just and true are thy ways, thou King of Saints ! Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name ? For thou only art holy : for all nations shall come and worship be- fore thee : for thy judgments are made manifest." XXL Genesis i. 26. ''And God said. Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." John i. 1, 2, 3. ''In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him ; and with- out him was not any thing made that was made." XXIL Hebrews xi. 25. "By faith, Moses when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharoah's daughter ; choosing rather to suffer af- fliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season." John xvii. 14. " I have given them thy word, and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of 24 XXIII. For in His name shall they be preserved ; and His will shall be their life. In those days shall the kings of the earth and the mighty men, who have gained the world by their achievements, be- come humble in countenance. XXIV. For in the day of their anxiety and trouble their souls shall not be saved ; and they shall be in sub- jection to those whom I have chosen. 25 the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." XXIII. Revelation vi. 15. " And the kinofs of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every freeman, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains ; and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of his wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand ? '* XXIV. Deuteronomy xxxii. 41. " If I whet my glitter- ing sword, and mine hand take hold on judgment, I will render vengeance to mine enemies, and will reward them that hate me." Psalm xviii. 47. " It is God that avengeth me and subdueth the people unto me." Luke xix. 27. " But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither and slay them before me." D 26 XXV. I will cast them like hay into the fire, and like lead into the water. Thus shall they burn in the presence of the righteous, and sink in the pre- sence of the holy ; nor shall a tenth part of them be found. XXVI. But in the day of their trouble, the world shall obtain tranquillity. XXVII. In His presence shall they fall, and not be 27 XXV. 1 Cor. iii. 12. " Novv if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble ; every man's work shall be made manifest : for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire ; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is." Luke xiii. 24. " Strive to enter in at the strait gate : for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door," &c. XXVI. Proverbs xvi. 4. " The Lord hath made all things for himself; yea, even the wicked for the day of evil." Isaiah xxxv. 10. "And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with songs, and everlasting joy upon their heads : they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away." 2 Thessalonians i. 7. "And to you who are troubled rest with us.'* XXVII. 2 Thessalonians i. 7, 8, 9. " When the Lord 28 raised up again ; nor shall there be any one to take them out of His hands, and to lift them up : for they have denied the Lord of spirits, and His Messiah. The name of the Lord of spirits shall be blessed. XXVHL Wisdom is poured forth like water, and glory fails not before Him for ever and ever ; for potent is He in all the secrets of righteousness. XXIX. But iniquity passes away like a shadow, and possesses not a fixed station : for the Elect one stands before the Lord of spirits ; and His glory is for ever and ever ; and His power from generation to generation. 29 Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty Angels ; in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his pow^er ; when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe, (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day." XXVIIL Proverbs viii. 22. •* The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old." Proverbs iii. 32. " The froward is abomination to the Lord, but his secret is with the righteous." 1 Peter iv. 13. *' Rejoice inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings, that when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceed- ing joy-" XXIX. Psalm xxxvii. 1 . " Fret not thyself because of evil doers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb." Daniel iv. 3. " His kingdom is an everlasting 30 XXX. With Him dwelleth the spirit of intellectual wisdom, the spirit of instruction and of power, and the spirit of those who sleep in righteousness ; He shall judge secret things. XXXI. Nor shall any be able to utter a single word before him ; for the Elect one is in the presence of the Lord of spirits, according to his own pleasure. 31 kingdom, and his dominion is from generation to generation." XXX. 1 Corinthians i. 30. "But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us, wisdom." Luke xxi. 16. "For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist." Proverbs xv. 33. " The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom." Acts vii. 59. " And they stoned Stephen, call- ing upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Psalm xxxi. 6. " Into thine hand I commit my spirit ; thou hast redeemed me, O Lord God of truth." Romans ii. 16. " God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my Gospel." XXXL Habakkuk ii. 20. " The Lord is in his holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before him." Isaiah xli. 1 . " Keep silence before me, O islands, and let the people renew their strength." John xvi. 28. " I came forth from the Father, 32 XXXII. In those days the saints and the chosen shall undergo a change. The light of day shall rest upon them ; and the splendor and glory of the saints shall be changed. XXXIII. In the day of trouble evil shall be heaped up upon sinners ; but the righteous shall triumph in the name of the Lord of spirits. 33 and am come into the world : aofain I leave the world, and go to the Father." XXXII. 1 Corinthians xv. 51. " Behold, I shew you a mystery ; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump : for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." Revelation xxi. 23, 24. " And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it : for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it." XXXIII. Isaiah xvii. 14. " And behold, at evening-tide, trouble." Psalm xi. 6. ^' Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and a burning tempest ; this shall be the portion of their cup." Psalm xlvii. 1,2, "O clap your hands all ye people, shout unto God with the voice of triumph ; For the Lord most high is terrible. He is a great King over all the earth." E 34 XXXIV. Others shall be made to see, that they must repent, and forsake the works of their hands ; and that glory awaits them not in the presence of the Lord of spirits ; yet that by his name they may be saved. The Lord of spirits will have compassion on them ; for great is his mercy ; and righteous- ness is in his judgment, and in the presence of his glory; nor in his judgment shall iniquity stand. He who repents not before Him shall perish. XXXV. Henceforward I will not have mercy on them, saith the Lord of spirits. XXXVL In those days shall the earth deliver up from her womb, and hell deliver up from hers, that which it has received ; and destruction shall restore that which it owes. 35 XXXIV. Acts xvii. 30. "God now commandeth all men every where to repent : because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world ia righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained." John iii. 17. " For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved." 2 Peter iii. 9. "The Lord is not slack concern- ing his promise, as some men count slackness ; but is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repent- ance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night." XXXV. Ezekiel xxxiii. IL " As I live saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wick- ed ; but that the wicked turn from his way and live : turn ye, turn ye, from your evil ways ; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?" XXXVI. Revelation xx. 13. " And death and hell gave up the dead which were in them, and they were judged every man according to their works." Psalm xlix. 14, 15. " Like sheep they^are laid 36 XXXVII. He shall select the righteous and holy from among them; for the day of their salvation has approached. XXXVIII. And in those days shall the Elect one sit upon his throne, while every secret of intellectual wisdom shall proceed from his mouth ; for the Lord of spirits has gifted and glorified him. XXXIX. In those days the mountains shall skip like rams, and the hills shall leap like young sheep 37 in the grave ; death shall feed on them ; and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning ; and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling. But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave ; for he shall receive me. Selah ! " XXXVII. 1 Corinthians xv. 22, 23. " For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order : Christ the first-fruits ; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming." Revelation xx. 5. " But the rest of the dead lived not till the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection." XXXVIII. Revelation iii. 21. "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame,^and am set down with my Father in his throne." Matthew XXV. 31. " When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory." XXXIX. Psalm Ixviii. 16. "Why leap ye, ye high hills? this is the hill which God desireth to dwell in." 38 satiated with milk ; and all the righteous shall be- come angels in heaven. XL. Their countenance shall be bright with joy ; for in those days shall the Elect one be exalted. The earth shall rejoice ; the righteous shall inhabit it, and the elect possess it. XLI. Blessed are ye, O saints and elect, for glorious is your lot. XLII. The saints shall exist in the light of the sun, and the elect in the light of everlasting life, the days of whose life shall never terminate ; nor shall the days of the saints be numbered, who seek for light, and obtain righteousness with the Lord of spirits. 39 Matthew xxii. 30. ''In the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven." XL. Isaiah Ixv. 17, 18. "For behold I create new heavens and a new earth ; and the former shall not be remembered nor come into mind. But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create : for behold I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy." XLI. Isaiah Ixv. 9. " And mine elect shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there.'* XLII. Malachi iv. 2. ** But unto you that fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise with, healing in his wings." Revelation xxi. 4. '* And there shall be no more death.*' Revelation x. 5, 6. "And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth, lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by him that liv- eth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things 40 XLIII. Peace be to the saints with the Lord of the world. XLIV. Henceforward shall the saints be told to seek in heaven the secrets of righteousness, the portion of faith ; for like the sun has it arisen upon the earth, while darkness has passed away. There shall be light interminable; nor shall they enter upon the enumeration of time ; for darkness shall be pre- viously destroyed, and light shall increase before the Lord of spirits ; before the Lord of spirits shall the light of uprightness increase for ever. XLV. And it shall be, that those who have been de- stroyed in the desert, and who have been devoured by the fish of the sea, and by wild beasts, shall re- turn, and trust in the day of the Elect one ; for none shall perish in the presence of the Lord of spirits, nor shall any be capable of perishing. 41 which are therein, that tiiere should be time no longer." XLIII. John xiv. 27. " Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto yoj ; not as the world giveth give I unto you." XLIV. Isaiah Ix. 1. "Arise! Shine! for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee." Isaiah Ix. 19. ''The sun shall be no more thy light by day, neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee ; but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory." Isaiah xxxii. 17. "And the work of righteous- ness shall be peace ; and the effect of righteous- ness quietness and assurance for ever/' XLV. Revelation xx. 13. " And the sea gave up the dead which were in it." John iii. 14, 15. "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up : that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life." 42 XLVI. Then they received the commandment, all who were in the heavens above ; to whom a combined power, voice, and splendor, like fire, were given. XLVII. And first, with their voice, they blessed Him, they exalted Him, they glorified Him with wisdom, and ascribed to Him wisdom with the word, arid with the breath of life. 43 Romans vi. 23. "The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." John X. 28. " I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand." XLVI. Revelation iv. 5. " And out of the throne pro- ceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices : and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God," Ezekiel i. 13. " As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, and like the appearance of lamps — And the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning." XLVIl. Revelation xi. 15. "And the seventh angel sounded : and there were great voices in heaven, saying. The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ ; and he shall reign for ever and ever." Revelation V. 11, 12. "And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne, and the living creatures and the elders : 44 XLVIII. Then the Lord of spirits seated upon the throne of his glory the Elect one ; XLIX. Who shall judge all the works of the holy, in heaven above, and in a balance shall He weigh their actions. And when he shall lift up his countenance to judge their secret ways in the word of the name of the Lord of spirits, and their pro- gress in the path of the righteous judgment of God most high ; L. They shall all speak with united voice ; and 45 and the number of them was ten tliousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands ; saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing." XLVIII. Isaiah xlii. L " Behold my servant whom I up- hold, mine Elect, in whom my soul delighteth." 1 Peter ii. 6. "Wherefore also it is contained in the Scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief corner-stone, elect, precious : and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. Psalm ix. 7. "The Lord shall endure for ever, he hath prepared his throne for judgment/' XLIX. Daniel v. 27. " Thou art weighed in the ba- lances and art found wanting." Matthew x. 26. " For there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed ; and hid, that shall not be known." Isaiah xxvi. 7. " Thou most upright, dost weigh the path of the just." L. Revelation xix. 5. *' And a voice came out of 46 bless, glorify, exalt, and praise, in the name of the Lord of spirits. LI. He shall call to every power of the heavens, to all the holy above, and to the power of God. The Cherubim, the Seraphim, and the Ophanin, all the angels of power, and all the angels of the Lords, namely, of the Elect one, and of the other Power, who was upon earth over the water on that day. LIL Shall raise their united voice; shall bless, glo- rify, praise, and exalt with the spirit of faith, with 47 the throne, saying. Praise our God all ye his ser- vants, and ye that fear him both small and great." Psalm 1. 5. 6. '* Gather my saints together unto me ; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice. And the heavens shall declare his righ- teousness, for God is judge himself. Selah ! " LI. Psalm Ixxx. 1. "Thou that dwellest between the Cherubims, shine forth ! *' Isaiah vi. 1, 2. "I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the Seraphim." Ezekiel i. 19, 20. " And when the living crea- tures went, the Ophanin went by them ; and when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the Ophanin were lifted up. Whithersoever the spirit was to go, they went, thither was their spirit to go ; and the Ophanin were lifted up over against them : for the spirit of the living creature was in the Ophanin y Genesis i. 2. " And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.'* LII. Psalm cxlviii. 2. " Praise ye him, all his angels : praise ye him, all his hosts." 48 the spirit of wisdom and patience, with the spirit of mercy, with the spirit of judgment and peace, and with the spirit of charity ; all shall say with united voice ; Blessed is He ; and the name of the Lord of spirits shall be blessed for ever and for ever ; all, who sleep not, shall bless it in heaven above. LIII. All the holy in heaven shall bless it; all the elect who dwell in the garden of life ; and every spirit of light, who is capable of blessing, glorify- ing, exalting, and praising thy holy name; and every mortal man, more than the powers of heaven, shall glorify and bless thy name for ever and ever. LIV. For great is the mercy of the Lord of spirits ; long-suffering is He ; and all his works, all his power, great as are the things which He has done, has He revealed to the saints and to the elect, in the name of the Lord of spirits. 49 Psalm ciii. 21. " Bless ye the Lord, all ye his hosts ; ye ministers of his that do his pleasure." Revelation iv. 8. "And the four living creatures had each of them six wings about him ; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Al- mighty, which was, and is, and is to come." LIIL Psalm cxv. 17, 18. " The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence ; but we will praise the Lord from this time forth and for evermore. Praise the Lord. ' Revelation xxii. 2. " In the midst of the street of it, and of either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month ; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations." LIV. Exodus xxxiv. 6. "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abun- dant in goodness and in truth." 1 Timothy i. 16. "For this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all long-suffering, for a pattern to them which 50 LV. Thus the Lord commanded the kings, tlie princes, the exalted, and those who dwell on earth, saying ; Open your eyes, and lift up your horns, if you are capable of comprehending the Elect one. LVI. The Lord of spirits sat upon the throne of his glory. 51 should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting." Ephesians iii. 4.5. '* Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ; which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto the holy apostles and prophets by the spirit." LV. Psalm Ixxii 8,9. " He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth : all that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him, and his enemies shall lick the dust." Psalm Ixxxix. 17. "For thou art the glory of their strength, and in thy favor our horns shall be exalted." Psalm ii. 10. " Be wise now, therefore, O ye kings ; be instructed, ye that are judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice before him with reverence." LVl. Revelation xx. 11. ** And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away ; and there was found no place for them." Matthew xxv. 31. " When the Son of man shall 52 LVII. And the spirit of righteousness was poured out over him. LVIIl. The word of his mouth shall destroy all the sinners and all the ungodly, who shall perish at his presence. LIX. In that day shall all the kings, the princes, the exalted, and those who possess the earth, stand up, 53 come in his glory, and all his holy angels with him, then shall he sit on the throne of his glory." LVII. Isaiah xi. 2. 4. " The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and under- standing, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. — With righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth." LVIIL Isaiah xi. 4. "He shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked." Psalm ii. 12. " Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the right way, when his wrath is kindled but a little." Revelation xix. 15. *' And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations ; and he shall rule them with a rod of iron ; and he treadeth the wine-press of the fierce- ness and wrath of Almighty God." LTX. Psalm Ixxvi. 8, 9. 12. "Thou didst cause judg- ment to be heard from heaven : the earth feared. 54 behold, and perceive, that He is sitting on the throne of his glory ; that before Him the saints shall be judged in righteousness ; LX. And that nothing, which shall be spoken before Him, shall be spoken in vain. LXI. Trouble shall come upon them, as upon a wo- man in travail, whose labour is severe, when her child comes to the mouth of the womb, and she finds it difficult to bring forth. Lxn. One portion of them shall look upon another. They shall be astonished, and shall humble their countenance : 55 and was still : when God arose to judgment, to save all the meek of the earth. Selah. He shall cut off the spirit of princes : he is terrible to the kings of the earth." LX. Matthew xii. 36, 37. " I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned." Jeremiah xliv. 29. "And this shall be a sign unto you, saith the Lord, that I will punish you in this place, that ye may know that my words shall surely stand against you for evil.*' LXI. 1 Thessalonians v. 2, 3. '* For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety ; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child ; and they shall not escape." LXII. Ezekiel xxvi. 16. "They shall clothe themselves with trembling; they shall sit upon the ground, 50 LXIII. And trouble shall seize them, when they shall behold this Son of woman sitting upon the throne of his glory. LXIV. Then shall the kings, the princes, and all who possess the earth, glorify Him who has dominion over all things, Him who was concealed; for from the begining the Son of man existed in secret, whom the Most High preserved in the presence of his power, and revealed to the elect. 57 and shall tremble at every moment, and be aston- ished at thee." Jeremiah xiii. 18. "Say unto the king and to the queen, Humble yourselves, sit down ; for your principalities shall come down, even the crown of your glory." LXIII. Isaiah vii. 14. " Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign : Behold, a Virgin shall con- ceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." Isaiah ix. 6. " For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given ; and the government shall be upon his shoulder : and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The ever- lasting Father, The Prince of Peace." LXIV. Numbers xxiv. 19. " Out of Jacob shall come he that shall have dominion, and shall destroy him that remaineth of the city." Psalm Ixxii. 8. " He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth." 1 Corinthians ii. 7, 8. " But we speak the wis- H 58 LXV. He shall sow the congregation of the saints, and of the elect ; and all the elect shall stand before Him in that day. 59 dom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory : which none of the princes of this world knew : for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory." Deuteronomy xxix. 29. " The secret things be- long unto the Lord our God." LXV. Jeremiah xxxi. 27, 28. " Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will sow the house of Israel, and the house of Judah, with the seed of man, and with the seed of beast. And it shall come to pass, that like as I have watched over them, to pluck up, and to break down, and to throw down, and to de- stroy, and to afflict ; so will I watch over them, to build, and to plant, saith the Lord.*' Isaiah Ixv. 9. "And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains : and mine elect shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there." Luke xxi. 36. " Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man." 60 LXVI. All the kings, the princes, the exalted, and those who rule over the earth, shall fall down on their faces before Him, and shall worship Him. LXVH. They shall fix their hopes on this Son of man, shall pray to Him, and petition Him for mercy. Lxvm. Then shall the Lord of spirits hasten to expel them from his presence. Their faces shall be full of confusion, and their faces shall darkness cover. The angels shall take them to punishment, that Gl LXVI. Psalm ii. 2. " The kings of the earth set them- selves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh : the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure." 1 Chronicles xvi. 29, 30. " Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name ; bring an offering, and come before him : worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Fear before him, all the earth." LXVIL 1 John iii. 3. " And every man that hath this hope in him, purifieth himself even as he is pure." Romans ix. 14. "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy : and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion." Lxvin. Matthew xxv. 4L "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." 62 vengeance may be inflicted on those who have op- pressed his children and his elect. And they shall become an example to the saints and to his elect. Through them shall these be made joyful ; for the anger of the Lord of spirits shall rest upon them. LXIX. Then the sword of the Lord of spirits shall be drunk with their blood ; but the saints and elect shall be safe in that day ; nor the face of the sinners and the ungodly shall they thenceforwards behold. 63 Matthew xxv. 30. " And cast ye the unprofita- ble servant into outer darkness ; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Matthew xiii. 39, 40, 41 . " The harvest is the end of the world ; and the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire ; so shall it be in the end of this world. The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend and them which do iniquity." Hebrews x. 30. " For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recom- pense, saith the Lord." Psalm ii. 9. " Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron ; and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." LXIX. Isaiah Ixvi. 10. " For by fire and by his sword will the Lord plead with all flesh : and the slain of the Lord shall be many." Isaiah xxxiv. 6. 8. " The sword of the Lord is filled with blood — For it is the day of the Lord's vengeance." Revelation xix. 15. ''And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite 64 LXX. The Lord of spirits shall remain over them LXXI. And with this Son of man shall they dwell, eat, lie down, and rise up, for ever and ever. LXXII. The saints and the elect have arisen from the earth, have left off to depress their countenances, and have been clothed with the garment of life. That garment of life is with the Lord of spirits, in whose presence your garment shall not wax old, nor shall your glory diminish. G5 the nations : and he shall rule them with a rod of iron ', and he treadeth the wine-press of the fierce- ness and wrath of Almighty God." LXX. Deuteronomy xxxii. 9. " For the Lord's portion is his people ; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance." Psalm xciv. 14. '' The Lord will not cast off his people, neither will he forsake his inheritance. But judgment shall return unto righteousness; and all the upright in heart shall follow it." LXXI. 2 Corinthians vi. 16. "As God hath said, I will dwell in thera^ and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people." Revelation xxi. 3. " And I heard a great voice out of heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men ; and he will dwell with them and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God." LXXIL Revelation vi. 11. " And white robes were given unto every one of them ; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow-servants also, and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled." I 66 LXXIII. All these eonfess and laud before the Lord of spirits. LXXIV. They glorify with all their power of praise; and He sustains them in all that act (3/* thanksgiving, while they laud, glorify, and exalt the name of the Lord of Spirits for ever and ever. LXXV. And with them He establishes this oath, by which they and their paths are preserved ; nor does their progress perish. 67 Revelation vii. 14, 15, 16, 17. "These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them." Matthew vi. 20. •' Lay up for yourselves trea- sures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt." LXXIII. Psalm cxlix. 1,2. " Praise ye the Lord, Sing unto the Lord a new song, and his praise in the congregation of saints." LXXIV. Isaiah Ixi. 3. " The Lord will comfort Zion — Joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody." Psalm cviii. 5, 6. ** Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens ; and thy glory above all the earth : that thy beloved may be delivered.** LXXV. John X. 28. '' I give unto them eternal life ; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand." 68 LXXVL Great was their joy. LXXVII. They blessed, glorified, and exalted, because the name of the Son of man was revealed to them. LXXVIII. He sat upon the throne of his glory ; and the principal part of the judgment was assigned to Him, the Son of man. Sinners shall disappear and perish from the face of the earth, while those who seduced them shall be bound with chains for ever. 69 LXXVI. i Corinthians ii. 9. "As it is written. Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath pre- pared for them that love him.** 1 Peter iv. 13. ''That when his glory'shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy." LXXVII. Philippians ii. 9, 10. " Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given hira a name which is above every name ; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow." LXXVIII. Psalm xcvii. 1, 2. "The Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice. — Righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne/' John V. 22, "The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son : that all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father.'* Psalm civ. 35. " Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more.'* Revelation xx. 1, 2. 7, 8. 10. " And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit, and a great chain in his hand." 70 LXXIX. According to their ranks of corruption shall they be imprisoned, and all their works shall dis- appear from the face of the earth ; nor thencefor- ward shall there be any to corrupt; for the Son of man has been seen, sitting upon the throne of his glory. LXXX. Every thing wicked shall disappear, and depart from before his face ; and the word of the Son of man shall become powerful in the presence of the Lord of spirits. 71 LXXIX. Matthew XXV. 41. '' Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." Revelation xxii. 3. "And there shall be no more curse ; but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it ; and his servants shall serve him." Revelation xxi. 5. " And he that sat upon the throne said. Behold, I make all things new." LXXX. Isaiah i. 24, 25. " Therefore saith the Lord, the Lord of hosts, the mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies ; and I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy sin." Luke xxi. 33. " Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away." THE PROPHECY OF ENOCH. A.M. 1 TO 700. I. Enoch then began to speak from a book and said, I have been born the seventh in the first week while judgment and righteousness, wait with patience. A. M. 700 TO 1400. 11. But after me, in the second week great wicked- ness shall arise, and fraud shall spring forth. III. In that week the end of the first shall take place, in which mankind shall be safe. IV. But when it is completed, iniquity shall grow up, and he shall execute the decree upon sinners. SCRIPTURE PARALLELS. I. Genesis v. 18. " And Jared lived an hundred and sixty two years, and he begat Enoch." II. Genesis vi. 5. "And God saw that the wicked- ness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart, was only evil continually." III. Genesis vi. 3. *' And the Lord said ; my spirit shall not always strive with man," IV. Genesis vi. 11, 12. "The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. K 74 A. M. 1400 TO 2100. V. Afterwards in the third week, during its com- pletion, a man of the plant of righteous judgment shall be selected ; and after him the plant of righteousness shall come for ever. A.M. 2100 TO 2800. VI. Subsequently in the fourth week during its com- pletion, the visions of the holy and the righteous shall be seen ; The order of generation after gene- ration shall take place, and an habitation shall be made for them. 75 And God looked upon the earth, and behold it was corrupt ; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth." V. Genesis xii. 1. "Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee." Genesis XV. 18. "In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates." Micah vii. 20. " Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old." VL Genesis xlvi. 2. " And God spake unto Israel in the visions of the night, and said, Jacob, Jacob. And he said, Here am I." Exodus iii. 2. 4. "And the angel of the Lord appeared unto Moses in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. — And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush." 76 A. M. 2100 TO 2800. (Visions of the holy and righteous.) (Order of generation after generation.) A. M. 2800 TO 3500. VII. Then in the fifth week during its completion, the house of glory and dominion shall be erected for ever. 77 Judges vi. 12. '' And the angel of the Lord ap- peared unto Gideon, and said unto him, The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valour." Judges xiii. 22. " And Manoah said unto his wife, We shall surely die, because we have seen God.'* Exodus xl. 15. " Their anointing shall surely be an everlasting priesthood, throughout their ge- nerations." Exodus xl. 2. " On the first day of the first month shalt thou set up the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation. And thou shalt put therein the ark of the testimony." Joshua xviii. 1 . " And the whole congregation of the children of Israel assembled together at Shiloh, and set up the tabernacle of the congregation there." VIL 1 Kings viii. 12, 13. "Then spake Solomon, The Lord said that he would dwell in the thick darkness. I have surely built thee an house to dwell in, a settled place for thee to abide in for ever." Haggai ii. 7. 9. "And the Desire of all nations shall come ; and I will fill this house with glory, 78 A. M. 3500 TO 4200. A. D. 1 to 200. VIII. After that in the sixth v.eek, all those who are in it shall be darkened, The hearts of all of them shall be forgetful of wisdom, and in it shall si man ascend. IX. During its completion also the house of do- 79 saith the Lord of hosts. — The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the Lord of hosts." VIII. Isaiah v. 30. ^' If one look unto the land, behold darkness and sorrow, and the light is darkened in the heavens thereof." Isaiah lix. 9. " We wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness." Matthew xiii. 15. "For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed." 1 Corinthians i. 20. *' Hath not God made fool- ish the wisdom of this world." 1 Corinthians iii. 19. " For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God." John iii, 13. " No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven." Acts i. 11. "This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.'* IX. Matthew xxiv. 2. " Verily I say unto you, There 80 minion shall be burnt with fire, and all the race of the elect root shall be dispersed. A. M. 4200 TO 4900 A. D. 200 to 900. X Afterwards, in the seventh week, a perverse ge- neration shall arise ; abundant shall be its deeds, 81 shall not be left here, one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down." Matthew xxiv. 20. " But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath-day." Luke XX. 16. " He shall come and destroy these husbandmen, and shall give the vineyard to others." Leviticus xxvi. 33. " And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you; and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste." Revelation vi. 1, 2. "And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals ; and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four living creatures, saying, Come and see. And I saw, and behold a white horse ; and he that sat on him had a bow ; and a crown was given unto him : and he went forth conquering, and to conquer." Revelation viii. 7. "The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth.*' X. Revelation vi. 3. " And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, Come and see. And there went out another L 82 and all its deeds perverse. During its completion the righteous, selected from the plant of everlast- ing righteousness shall be rewarded, and to them shall be given seven-fold instruction respecting every part of his creation. A. M. 4900 TO 5600. A. D. 900 to 1600. XL Aftervi^ards there shall be another week, the eighth, of righteousness, to which shall be given a sword to execute judgment and justice upon all oppressors. Sinners shall be delivered up into the hands of the righteous, who during its completion shall acquire habitations by their righteousness; and the house of the great King shall be built up for ever. 83 horse that was red : and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth." Revelation xii. 11. "And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony ; and they loved not their lives unto the death." XI. Revelation xiv. 6 — 13. " And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the ever- lasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth." Revelation ii. 23. " And I will kill her children with death ; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts : and I will give unto every one of you according to your works." Revelation ii. 26. " He that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations." Revelation xvi. 6. "They have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink ; for they are worthy.*' Revelation vi. 11. "And white robes were given unto every one of them ; and it was said un- to them, that they should rest yet for a little season, 84 A. M. 5600 TO 6300 A. D. 1600 to 2300. XII. After that, in the ninth week, shall the judgment of righteousness, be revealed to the whole world. Every work of the ungodly shall disappear from the whole earth ; the world shall be marked for destruction : and all men shall strive to discern the path of goodness. 85 until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be ful- filled." 1 Peter ii. 5. " Ye also as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house." 1 Corinthians iii. 17. "For the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are." Hebrewis iii. 6. "Whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end." XII. Revelation vi. 12 — 17. "And 1 beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake ; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood. And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven de- parted as a scroll when it is rolled together ; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places, &c." Revelation xix. 7. " Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him : for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready." 86 A. M. 0300 TO 7000. A. D. 2300 to 3000. XIII. And after this, on the seventh day of the tenth week, there shall be an everlasting judgment, which shall be executed upon the watchers : and a spacious eternal heaven shall spring forth in the midst of the angels. The former heaven shall pass away ; a new heaven shall appear ; and all the celestial powers shine with seven-fold splendor for ever. Afterwards likewise shall there be many weeks, which shall eternally exist in goodness and in righteousness. Neither shall sin be named there for ever and ever. 87 XIII. Revelation xx. 12. " And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works." Revelation xx. 4. " And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them." Revelation XX. 10. "And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone.*' Revelation xxi. 1 . " And I saw a new heaven and a new earth : for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away." Revelation xxi. 11. "And her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal." Revelation xxi. 25. " And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day : for there shall be no night there. — ^And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie." Revelation xxii. 3. " And there shall be no more curse : but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it ; and his servants shall serve him." 88 Table of the Pages referred to in the Book of Enoch, Trans- lated by the Archbishop of Cashel, arranged under their several Heads. FIRST BOOK FIRST BOOK THE VISION BOOK ANCIENT OF SECRETS OF NOAH OF THE OR VISION OF AND OP 1 book. WISDOM. HISTORY. WATCHERS. ASTRONOMY, j PAGE. PAGE. PAGE. PAGE. PAGE. 1 1 2 5 6 60 61 161 162 85 86 — 45 7 8 62 63 163 164 87 88 — 47 9 10 64 65 165 166 89 90 48 49 11 12 — 69 167 — 91 92 50 51 4 70 71 109 110 93 94 52 — 5 — 21 111 112 95 96 58 59 22 23 24 25 113 114 97 98 100 — 65 115 116 99 66 67 26 27 117 118 101 102 68 69 28 29 119 120 103 104 — 80 SECOND BOOK 30 31 121 122 105 106 81 — OF THE 32 33 123 124 107 108 WATCHERS. 34 35 125 126 — 2 36 — 127 128 3 4 13 14 82 83 84 — 129 130 131 132 PROPHECY. 15 16 138 139 — 4 16 1 D 133 1.34 140 141 ~~ 135 136 17 19 18 20 SECOND BOOK 137 138 OF SECRETS OR VI.SION OF — WISDOM. SECOND BOOK. 36 37 142 143 38 39 VISION 144 145 40 41 OF NOAH. 146 147 42 43 148 149 44 — 71 72 150 151 46 47 73 74 152 153 — 52 75 76 154 155 53 54 77 78 156 157 55 56 79 80 158 159 51 58— — 141 160 161 59 60 — OBSERVATIONS CHRONOLOGY OF THE BOOK OF ENOCH. One of the most accurate and learned inquirers among those who have endeavoured to reconcile the difficulties of ancient chronology, prefaces a part of his works by this observation*: — "He " who undertakes to unravel and to reconcile " the events of the earliest ages, does indeed " attempt a task, the extreme labour of which " is enhanced by continual difficulties!." And if this were necessarily always the case, from the inherent obscurity of the subject itself, when considered merely with a reference to * Perizonii Origines Babylonicse, p. 1. -|- " Ardui sane et multis difficultatibus impediti laboris " aggreditur opus, qui res antiquissimi temporis eruendas " sibi atque expediendas sumit." ancient records, it must be admitted tliat the researches of modern authors have accumulated such a mass of real or supposed evidence, in defence both of the chronology of the Hebrew text, and that of the Septuagint, that the con- clusion to which most inquirers will now, how- ever unwillingly, arrive, must be, that it is no longer possible to separate, by any external evidence, the true data from those which are corrupt, or to fix the exact epoch of particular events, by reasoning upon the various parts of any order of chronological succession. Without perusing the earlier and more voluminous writers, who seem almost to have made this controversy a branch of the dissensions between the Roman and Reformed Churches, it will be evident from the most cursory comparison of the works of Usher, Marsham, or Perizonius, with the elabo- rate work of Dr. Hales, with that of Shuckford, or with the more recent Connexion of Sacred and Profane Histor}^ written by the learned Dr. Russell, that the points on which their different systems are founded, have long since been be- yond the reach of any accurate determination ; and that we must now be satisfied with a balance of probabilities, if we seek to fill up, either on one system or the other, the outline which is given to us in the authentic records of the Holy Scripture *. Strongly impressed, therefore, as 1 am, with the persuasion that the chronology which places the coming of our Lord in the 3999th, or 4000th year of the world, that is to say, in the fourth or fifth year before our vulgar era, is correct, I shall not re-enter the arena, which has been trodden by the steps of so many learned com- batants on either side, but giving up as imprac- ticable the attempt to assign a sequence of dates more plausible than that which the learned Usher has long since arranged, I shall confine myself to such observations, as may show, in the first place, some objections against the chrono- logy of the Septuagint, which arise either from internal evidence, or the collateral testimony of other circumstances. I shall then pursue the inquiry, whether, supposing that the chronolo- * I need scarcely remind the reader of such points as those of the second Cainan, the departure of Abraham from Haran, or the duration to be assigned to the several periods of the Judges. a 2 gical evidence for both theories is set aside, we may find reason to assume, from traditionary, from prophetic, or apocryphal evidence, that any determinate duration has been assigned to the world ; and whether the duration so assigned is marked by any peculiarity of recurrence as to its intervals. If it be found that such a period was anciently expected, and that the parts of that period coin- cide with, or closely approximate to, the leading events of the chronology of Archbishop Usher, it may then be presumed that the circumstantial evidence thus obtained from different sources, will tend strongly to confirm the truth of the computation with which it coincides. I have forgotten the name of the old writer who says of traditionary evidence, that " a great " cloud of smoke argues at least a little fire." But the observation is a shrewd one, and I have reminded the reader of it, lest he should con- sider some of the testimonies which I shall ad- duce, as being of no value, because of their want of authority. This may indeed be the case with each, when taken separately, while still the concurrence of various repetitions of the same tale, may acquire, from comparison, a force of evidence second only to rigid demonstration. Wherever, or from whatever source, the dif- ference between the numbers given by the Hebrew, by the Samaritan, and Greek versions, may have originated, it is manifestly too great to have been accidental, as the former having 1656 ; the Samaritan, 1307 ; and the Greek of the seventy interpreters, 2256 years, the greatest difference is 955, and the least, 606 years before the Deluge ; while from that period to the birth of Abraham, the difference between the Hebrew and Septuagint is 780, making in all, 1386 years. In some way or other, therefore, this difference is to be accounted for, and the knot has, on behalf of the Seventy, rather been cut, than unloosed, by the assumption, that the Jew- ish Rabbis must have advisedly shortened the periods of the generations in the Hebrew, by subtracting a century from each ; and the motive assigned for this proceeding, is their desire to obtain an argument against the fulfilment of the predictions relative to the Messiah. 6 This theory must of course proceed on the ground, that the authority of the Septuagint is indisputable. I will, therefore, proceed to inquire into the authority which the chronology of this version really possesses. On the general question of comparison be- tween this version and the Hebrew, the acute and learned Bishop Horsley says *, " With res- " pect to the Greek version of the LXX. in " particular, it may reasonably be made a doubt " whether the MSS. from which it was made, " were they now extant, would be entitled to " the same degree of credit as our modern " Hebrew^ text, notwithstanding their compara- " tively high antiquity. There is certainly much " reason to believe that after the destruction of " the temple by Nebuchadnezzar, perhaps from " a somewhat earlier period, the Hebrew text " was in a much worse state of corruption, in " the copies which were in private hands, than " it has ever been since the revision of the sacred " books by Ezra. These inaccurate copies would * Works, vol. vii. p, 285. be multiplied during the whole period of the Captivity, and widely scattered in Assyria, Persia, and Egypt ; in short, through all the regions of the dispersion. " The text as revised by Ezra was certainly of much higher credit than any of these copies, notwithstanding their greater antiquity. His edition succeeded, as it were, to the preroga- tives of an autograph (the autographs of the inspired writers themselves being totally lost), and was henceforward to be considered as the only source of authentic texts : insomuch that the comparative merit of an}^ text now extant will depend upon the probable degree of its approximation to, or distance from, the Esdrine edition. Now, if the translation of the LXX was made from some of those old MSS. which the dispersed Jews had carried into Egypt, or from any other of those unauthenticated copies, (which is the prevailing tradition among the Jews, and is very probable, at least it cannot be confuted,) it will be likely that the faultiest MS. now extant differs less from the genuine Esdrine text, than those more ancient, which the version of the LXX represents." 8 These are the words of an author, who seems to have considered the chronology of the LXX as more correct than that of the Hebrew, and they cannot therefore be supposed to proceed from any wish to depreciate the authority of the former. There are, then, two ways in which the version of the LXX may have become incorrect. It may either have been made from copies previously corrupted, or it may have been corrupted by the translators themselves. If corrupted in the pre- vious copies, there must have been some general cause to produce that corruption. It is evidently probable, that during those years of distress and trouble, after which the captivity commenced, many manuscripts would fall into the power of the invaders, and be de- stroyed ; and the dearth thus created would pro- duce a corresponding demand for additional copies among the Jews, not only of Babylon, but of the whole Dispersion. With regard to doc- trines, the transcribers would remain uninfluenced by their change of country. But as to the cal- culation of chronology, the scribes must quickly have discovered, that their computation, supposing it to have been tlie same as that now given by the Hebrew, differed widely from the calculations of the nations among whom they were thrown; for the Chaldeans and Egyptians equally affected a great antiquity ; and the neighbouring nations must, more or less, have shared in whatever error of computation was produced by misconception of the real periods computed under that enor- mous number of fictitious years, by which the ancient priests enigmatically communicated to their successors a knowledge which required a key to the terms made use of, before it could be rightly understood. Like Josephus, who speaks* of the Egyptians and Babylonians as having, above all other nations, " the most ancient and " most constant tradition of history," it is pro- bable that the Jews would be dazzled by the pretensions of their new masters to superior anti- quity ; and as they would not be inclined to doubt the truth of the Mosaic history, while they must have thus been sensible that their own were certainly the earliest records ; both their national pride, and the confident assertions of those who " Somv." Lib. i. cont. Apion, 10 had the " wisdom of the Chaldeans," would concur to persuade them, that some years had been omitted in the Hebrew account. Thus we can at least see, that there might be a very general and prevailing reason why the Hebrew calculation, if originally shorter than that of the Chaldean or Egyptian sages, should be lengthened during the captivity, or subse- quent to it. Nor does this certainly infer any want of good faith in those who made the altera- tion, since they might naturally imagine that some such correction was required. The same considerations may be supposed to have operated on the minds of the Septuagint translators, if we exclude the probability of previous alteration in the Hebrew copies used by them. It has been argued by several authors, with great care and labour, that from the fragments of Alexander Polyhistor, quoted by Eusebius, on- wards, there is a general consent of authorities among Greek authors, who all agree in using the same calculation as the Septuagint ; and that this consent subsists till the second century of our era. I think that the fact is incontrovertible, and am therefore ready most fully to admit it ; 11 but the inference that the authenticity of the Hebrew computation is thus disproved, does not necessarily follow. From the time of the Sep- tuagint translation it would be read by the Jews of the dispersion, as well as by the other authors who have been referred to ; and unless they could refer to the Esdrine copy of the Hebrew, or to some other Hebrew text of authority, the differ- ence of the two calculations would remain unob- served. But we know that the Jews themselves, on their return from Babylon, had so greatly lost their knowledge of the pure Hebrew, that when Ezra opened the book of the law in the sight of all the people, it was necessary to interpret it. " The Levites read in the book in the law of God " distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them " to understand the reading." (Neh. viii. 5. 8) Nor can it be supposed that the circumstances of the nation afterwards were such as to revive the knowledge of the more ancient language, or to check the gradually general use of a still more modern dialect ; so that the transcription of the law must necessarily have been rare ; and, if b2 12 transcribed, it must have been still more rarely accessible for any purpose of collation. Nor is it probable that any doubt arose as to the correctness of the Septuagint; and thus it would necessarily become the sole authority referred to, as being the only one generally understood, or valued. But still, among the learned Jews, previous to the Christian era, traces must be found of the existence of the Hebrew numbers, if they were really according to the original computation : and that such traces are to be observed, I hope hereafter to prove ; not only on the authority of that computation made use of in the book of Enoch, which the reader has already seen, but from other sources also. It will be found that the ancient Jews did not expect the Messiah in the sixth, but in the fourth chiliad ; and therefore the supposition that the reckoning of time was altered by them, so as to throw the advent of the Messiah, acknowledged by the Christians, upon the precise time at which his coming had been foretold and expected, will become totally inadmissible ; and some other 13 reason, as well as some other time, for this alter- ation, will remain yet to be discovered. Thus, we may discern a possible and not im- probable cause for the alteration of the Septuagint, whether we consider it to have taken place during the translation, or shortly before that period. If, indeed, we give credit to the account of Philo, the translators not only performed their task with exactness ; but, although separated, miraculously made use of the very same words. But to such a witness as this I pay no regard ; since, of all testimonies, that which proves too much, is the most liable to suspicion. Nor do I imagine that the pseudo Aristeas can be otherwise regarded than as a work of imagi- nation, in which truth and fiction are so blended, that it is impossible to separate them. It is, however, to be remarked, that although Philo, within a few pages of the passage above cited, (p. 501 and 496,) speaks of the Hebrews by name, calling Moses also, at p. 823, E^paiov, and £K yevovg E(5paiwv ; and although, in a great number of places, he speaks of the Chaldeans as distinct from the Hebrews, yet repeatedly ob- serves, that the Septuagint was translated, not 14 from the Hebrew, but from the Chaldean tongue, using the words XaXSaioc and XaXBaiKog several times*: and by this, as he declares that the copy was sent from Jerusalem, he must have meant the mixed language, which was in use in Judea at that time. There is thus some evidence in favour of the conjecture of Bp. Horsley, already mentioned ; since it would have been much easier to collect a number of interpreters, to whom both that lan- guage and the Greek were known, than such as might be qualified to translate the pure He- brew ; and as copies in the vernacular idiom must have been far most easily attainable, the probable circumstances of the case very much coincide with the expression used by Philo. The testimony of Josephus, depending, as it does, upon the existence of single words, which in the various copies occur with some variation, is of so mixed a character that little reliance can be placed on it, either to support the Septuagint calculation, or to invalidate it ; for if there seems cause to conclude that he wrote the sum of years * De Vit. Mosis, lib. xi. p. 509. 15 anterior to the flood as 1658, in agreement with the Hebrew ; so, on the other hand, the sepa- rate numbers ascribed by him to the successive generations, closely approximate to those of the Septuagint. The variation in the numbers, which are given by the version of Rufiinus, adds to the difficulty of founding any arguments upon the statements of former copies, since the greater proportion of those given by Ruffinus, agree with the He- brew calculation ; while two of them, those of Malaleel and Enoch, neither agree with the Hebrew nor with the Septuagint itself. For the former, the Hebrew has 65 years ; the Septuagint, 165; while Josephus gives 162 : and for the lat- ter, while there is the same difference of a century between the Hebrew and Septuagint, which have 165 and 65 years, Josephus has 105. Doubtless these numbers originally agreed either with the Hebrew or Greek, but their casual alteration im- pairs the general credit of the calculation to which they belong, as much as if we were to suppose that they had been wilfully corrupted. The remark of Fabricius, " That the ancients " seem universally to have paid but little atten- 16 " tioii to the verification of dates *," may perhaps account for much of this confusion ; and as it would seem that Josephus used the Hebrew and the Septuagint indifferently, his own statements might thus have differed, from mere inadver- tence to the subject of chronology. Josephus indeed has expressly stated, that he drew his materials from the original Hebrew, but yet it seems that he certainly made use of the Septuagint for the purpose of quotation. This appears from many changes of names, in which, differing from the Hebrew, he has ex- actly followed the Septuagint. Some such coincidences might be attributed to an agreement of opinion in both translators, as to the euphony of the Greek ; but the sub- stitution of Fayav for Rehu, or of NtSpwS for Nimrod, being entirely arbitrary, could not be accidental in both cases. But thus the authority of Josephus, as a witness with respect to the state of the Hebrew original at the period when his work was composed, will always be doubtful, since we can have no assurance that any pas- * " Mirari licet veteres diu et passim doctrinse temporum parum curiosos fuisse." — Chron. p. 164. 17 sage, as to which we appeal to his authority, may not, like the names which I have already quoted, have been taken from the Septuagint itself. But the Septuagint contains a number more evidently vitiated than any which is found in the Hebrew; for the a2;e of Methuselah at the birth of Lamech is there stated as 167 years, from whence it would follow that he must have lived several years beyond the flood ; and al- though the eastern copies of the Septuagint have been referred to, as containing the same number as the Hebrew in this place, yet from the agree- ment of all the copies in giving eight hundred and two, instead of seven hundred and eighty- two years, as the duration of the life of Methu- selah after Lamech's birth, it follows that the disagreement of the previous numbers, whatever may have caused it, cannot have arisen from a mere error of transcription. But there is a more serious difficulty, which arises from the supposition that the periods of generation mentioned in the Septuagint are cor- rect ; for on this assumption, the average period of the succession of one generation to another, is c 18 nearly two centuries, so tliat the increase of mankind would have been so slow, that men could not have " begun to multi})ly on the face " of the earth," as we are assured that they did, previous to the era of the flood. It is worthy of remark, that the Hebrew word here used will not allow of our supposing that merely comparative increase is all which is intended by this expression, since it is 2'^b, the sense of which is not that of increase, but of mul- titude. It has been observed, that the comparative agreement of the generations of Methuselah and Lamech with those of the other patriarchs, ac- cording to the Septuagint, while according lo the Hebrew they so far exceed the others, is a presumption in favour of the truth of the former computation. But, as the life of Methuselah ex- ceeded that of other patriarchs, so it is by no means inconsistent with probability, that the period of succession, even if the succession of the eldest were that which is referred to, should in his case be later than in that of others ; while, with regard to Lamech, it must be remembered, that had his chosen offspring Noah been born a 19 century earlier, that fitness which we must sup- pose to have existed in his selection, must have been in some respects materially altered. It may be sufficient, therefore, to observe, that we can hardly reason from mere analogy in a case which, as we must admit, was so specially under the direction of God's particular providence, that no deviation from previous order, with regard to it, can be regarded as merely accidental. With re- spect to the length of the generations, which in the Septuagint only varies between 205 and 165 years, it has been sometimes imagined that this uniformity was an evidence of truth ; but it is, in fact, just the contrary, unless we suppose that the names which are given, are those of the eldest children in each case. Then, indeed, we should expect that there would be an average variation, confined within narrow limits, the result of which might be taken as an index of the length of a generation at that period. But the assumption which is thus rendered necessary, is entirely inconsistent M'ith the nar- rative of the Scriptures, while it is little less repugnant to the probable circumstances which c2 20 have caused these particular names to be selected, as the fixed points of Sacred History. As we know that Seth was not the eldest of Adam's sons, and as the chosen seed of Abra- ham was likewise derived from a younger son, so there is no analogy whatever from vi'hence we might conclude that the names which are intermediate between these extremes, are those of the eldest children only. It may rather be concluded, that they record the per- severance of those who in each generation, resisting the temptations of the world around them, were " preachers of righteousness;" and that they have been selected, as thus bearing a continual testimony, that " the invisible things " of God have from the creation of the world " been clearly seen *." Thus the greater varia- tion which is found in these periods, as they stand in the Hebrew, is, in fact, rather an inter- nal evidence of truth ; since it is not probable that the periods of birth of those who might be selected for commemoration, in each successive * Rom. i. 20. 21 age, should be without some variety as to their commencement. That those antediluvian patriarchs, who are commemorated in the Scripture, should have been thus arbitrarily chosen, will only lead us to the inference, that the same principle of selec- tion was applied to them, as afterwards to Abra- ham. But the history of this patriarch and of Sarah, contains internal evidence of a very de- cisive character, that the dates of the Hebrew computation still remain unaltered. Abraham, it is said, " fell on his face, and laughed, " and said in his heart, Shall a child be born " unto him that is a hundred years old, and " shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?" In other words, he considered their respective ages of a hundred, and ninety, to be beyond the period at which they could hope to have any progeny. Nor can we imagine that this is merely a metaphorical representation, or that it was a feeling confined to Abraham alone, because Sarah herself is afterwards represented as sharing in the same incredulity. But if we assume that the dates of the Sep- 22 tuagiiit are correct, Nahor, the grandfather of Abraham, became the father of Terah at the age of a hundred and seventy years ; so that, although Abraham himself may have been born not long after the birth of Haran, or previous to his father's eightieth year, yet, as this must have been the first exception to those instances of greater ages which had preceded it, the in- credulity of Abraham or Sarah will still need explanation, unless, in agreement with the He- brew computation, we admit that the shorter periods of succession, which are assigned to the preceding patriarchs, have been correctly stated. In coincidence with them, both the Hebrew and Septuagint agree that Isaac married before the age of thirt}^, since Sarah died when he was twenty-seven years old. And when it is said that Isaac brought Rebecca into his mother's tent, and that he was comforted after his mother's death, it must necessarily be inferred, that her death had taken place at a comparatively recent period ; for the Apostle who mentions that " Abraham and Isaac dwelt in tents," sojourning in the land of promise as in a strange country, 23 has thus forbidden the supposition that a perma- nent dwelling can be alluded to in the foregoing history. It has been sometimes observed, that the state of civilization to which the world appears to have attained in the time of Abraham, is such as would have required a longer space than three centuries for its acquirement. But it should be recollected, that the flood was not unexpected or unprepared for, by those who were preserved from it. We cannot imagine that Noah, who, with his family, must have contemplated their future situation, from the time at which the building of the ark had commenced, could have foreseen none of the circumstances in which they must necessarily be placed, when the flood should have subsided. Without assuming that Noah possessed any other foresight than that which must be common to every reflecting mind, it is obvious that the various discoveries by which the arts of life had already beep introduced into the world, and the polity which had been hitherto arranged among men, would not less engage his attention, than the records of former times, in the succession of previous generations. In these 24 respects his situation was analogous to that of the founder of a colony, who is about to be separated from the resources of the parent country, and to be left to his own exertions in the management of his infant commonwealth. In such circum- stances he would undoubtedly collect the mate- rials for the practice of the most useful arts ; he would imitate, in some degree, the jurisprudence of the country from which he might emigrate, and would be especially solicitous to teach the rising generation of his colonists, the various decencies and refinements which distinguish the social from the savage life. Such an example and such endeavours might indeed be now comparatively ineffectual, because the term of life is too short to admit of sufficient opportunity on the one part, or of adequate expe- rience on the other. But the greater age to which the patriarchs attained, not only fitted them for instructors, by the previously accumu- lated stores of long experience, but afforded ample space for the subsequent communication of traditionary knowledge. Had the succession of generations, indeed, been as slow as the Sep- tuagint would represent it, we could hardly 25 account for the comparatively rapid development of the resources of their social state ; but when the length of life was combined with rapidity of succession, the result is only such as might rea- sonably be expected. If it be thought difficult to reconcile the appa- rent history of Chaldea or of Egypt with the Hebrew chronology, it may be recollected also, that as the founders of colonies have frequently sought to revive in their memory former scenes, by giving to their new abodes the names of the cities or countries from which they have derived their origin ; so those confused accounts of the earliest reigns and dynasties, which have occa- sioned so much trouble to chronologers, may partly have arisen from the use of names subse- quent to the flood, which had also been in use before it : and the combination of this similarity with the traditionary history of periods anterior to the flood, may have made it impossible to reconcile the dates at which we should thus appear to arrive, with the true computation of the scriptural history of events. An Arabic tradition, mentioned by Kir- d 26 cher*, assumes that Misraim, as the first king of Egypt, learned from his father Cham the former manner of rule in that country, where Cham, having dwelt before the flood, returned when it had subsided. And visionary as this tradition may have been, it may still serve to illustrate the subject to which I have already referred, as showing that this amalgamation, as it were, of events and dates, prior to the flood, and posterior to it, has long since been thought probable. The Septuagint certainly appears to afford a greater space for the multiplication of mankind previous to the time of Peleg, than the Hebrew ; but without taking into account the slower rate of multiplication, which is involved in the Septua- gint calculation, by which this discrepancy is reduced, it is quite evident from such calcula- tions as those of Petavius or Bp. Cumberland, that the Hebrew chronology affords ample space for the multiplication of many thousands of the human race previous to the era of their disper- * CEdip. iEgypt. p. 72. 27 sion. And here, indeed, there is another impro- bability involved in the longer computation ; for the assembly of the whole of those who then existed, in the plain of Shinar, before the confu- sion of tongues, is scarcely compatible with the amount of years which must have previously elapsed according to the LXX. Mankind must either have been too numerous, or their increase must have been slower than it is represented to have been: while it is still less probable, that in journeying eastward, according to the account of the Scripture, they should have advanced so short a distance in so large a number of years. If we imagine, on the other hand, that the com- putation of the Hebrew involves in it any impro- bability on account of the long period to which Noah and Shem must have lived, compared with the age to which Abraham attained, while the former remain, during the latter part of their lives, unmentioned in the Scripture narrative ; it is to be observed, that the history is equally silent as to the latter events of the life of Noah and Shem, whether we adopt the longer or the shorter computation. We are even left in uncer- tainty as to Noah, whether at the period of the d2 28 confusion liis language remained the same as that of the progeny of Shem. If we follow the Septuagint, a great number of years will remain previous to the calling of Abraham, in which we have no record of events : while, according to the Hebrew, the events which are detailed, while the history is silent as to Shem or his immediate progeny, relate to Abraham alone. In either case the same supposition seems allowable, that since " God had said unto Abram, get thee out " of thy country, and from thy kindred, and "from thy father's house;" the same reasons which required this separation, rendered it ne- cessary that the subsequent history should be confined to the race thus set apart for the future fulfilment of prophecy, and for the completion of the promise, that in the seed of Abraham all the nations of the earth should be blessed. Since it is manifest how soon the race of men fell into idolatry, we may, at least, discern some reason why Noah or Shem, and their contem- poraries, might be allowed a longer term of life than those who succeeded them ; because thus the living witnesses of the stupendous miracle of the flood were preserved, to counteract, by their 29 piety, a second increase of crime on earth, and to contradict, by their own experience, any error arising from ignorance, or combined with unbe- lief as to the providence of God. As it is not my object to enter into the discus- sion of the general question between the autho- rity of the Septuagint or Hebrew versions, I will only add the observation of a learned writer* as to their conflicting claims : " Since there must " necessarily have been an intention to corrupt " the years of the patriarchs either on the part " of the Jews, so as to shorten the period of their " history, or on the part of the Greek interpre- " ters, so as to lengthen it ; I own myself unable * Perizonii Origines Babylonicae, p. 391. '* Cum neces- " sario, fraus in tot patriarcharum annis, vel ab Judaeis in •* Hebraico textu, ad minuendam suae historise antiquitatem, " vel a Gr^cis interpretibus ad earn augendam, consulto " prorsus consilio debuerit fuisse facta; exputare nequeo, nee " reperio quae tanta res Judaeos movisset, ut earn minuere " adeo vellent, imprimis quum finitimi illis populi, Chald^i, " ^gypti, &c., ex antiquitate longa vel prsecipuam suis origi- *' nibus majestatem addere studuerint ; et ipse Josephus pro " antiquitate rerum Judaicarum, cum Apione quoque depug- " naverit. Longe itaque verisimilius, Graecos interpretes, " quicunque illi tandem fuerunt, in -S^gypto fraude bac usos " esse, ne infra iEgyptorum antiquitatem longe adeo subsi- " derent origines Judaicae." 30 to discern what could have inclined the Jews to diminish it ; particularly since the nations around them, the Chaldeans or Egyptians, chiefly claimed respect on account of the extreme antiquity of their origin : and thus Josephus contended against Apion, for the antiquity of the Hebrew polity. It therefore appears by far most probable, that the Greek interpreters, whoever they may have been, made use of this fraud in Egypt, lest the origin of the Jews should appear to be much more recent than that of the Egyptians." In conclusion, it may be observed, that those who maintain the authenticity of the Septuagint computation, ought at least to show some pro- bable cause to which the alteration of the Hebrew may be attributed. It has been referred indeed to the desire of the Jewish Rabbis to obtain an argument against Christianity, by showing that the Messiah did not appear in the person of Jesus Christ, at the time which had been set apart for his coming by the voice of tradition, or of prophecy. But I apprehend, that it will appear probable that our Lord did in fact come on earth at the very period at which, according 31 to the Masoretic chronology, his advent ought to have taken place ; and thus the Jewish doctors must have altered a scheme of computation, which contradicted the belief of Christians, in order to substitute one which agreed with it. I need not insist upon the improbability of such a theory. I proceed then to inquire, what traces can be found in the Scriptures, or in the Jewish tradi- tions, for such a computation as that, which limiting the duration of the world to seven mil- lenary periods, agrees with the book of Enoch in the events which are supposed to have occurred in each of them. With respect to such a computation, the inde- fatigable Fabricius has left an opinion which must, at least, be admitted to be the result of the most unwearied and laborious research. He says, " I will not, like Varro, divide the whole " of time into that which is unknown, fabulous, " and historic ; but I will substitute for this '' division the ancient tradition of the house of " Elias, so celebrated among the Jews, accord- " ing to which the duration of the world is "divided into six millenaries; so that there 32 *' should be two thousand void, or before the " law of Moses ; two thousand of the law ; two " thousand of the Messias *." The word used in the Hebrew original, and here translated as " inane," seems to show, that the first period related to the time previous to the covenant with Abraham. The words of the tradition are as follows f : — : kd"?;^ vn nw ^^bik n-^tf in''bN n^n ^?Jn n-nn D''^b^^ 'w inn d^S)'??< ''T^ Literally — " The declaration of the progeny of Elias : — " Six thousands of years, this is for ever : *' Two thousands, without order ; " Two thousands, the covenant ; " And two thousands, shall continue the Messiah." As the word inn, which our translators have rendered, at the beginning of the book of Gene- * Fabricii Bibl. Antiq. p. 199. " Placet non cum Varrone " tempus omne dividere in Adrj'S.ov jivdiKoy Kai laropiKov, sed " huic Varronianse division! potius praeferre antiquam et " Judseorum testimonio celebratissimam domus Eliae tradi- " tionem, qua omne sevum dividitur in sex millenarios, hoc " modo : duo millia inane, sive ante legem Mosis ; duo millia " lex ; duo millia Messias." t Fabricii Codex Pseud. Vet. Test. p. 1080, 33 sis, " without form,' appears to be used in opposition to ^]1^^\ in the following paragraph ; the sense seems to be thus restricted to the contrast between the periods before, and subse- quent to the covenant ; and thus the selection of Abraham, separated from the advent of the Messiah by two chiliads, and the synchronism of the latter event with the commencement of the fifth thousand years, both appear to agree with the tradition here recorded. The use of the word VH, and also of t^f^hv, with the sense of total duration, in agreement with the book of Daniel *, would lead to the inference that this tradition must have originated in Chaldsea, and the Chaldee idiom of the word mD' agrees with this supposition. This passage, however, having been frequently mentioned by Mede, and other writers, I will proceed to notice another, which appears still more worthy of consideration, and which I believe has hitherto remained unob- served. It is quoted by Buxtorf f, without any more e^act reference than to the early Tal- mudists ; but I apprehend that it is a relic of the * Dan. iv. 31. -f Lexicon Talmudicum, p. 2090. e 34 ancient Zohar *, and that it contains internal evidence of such antiquity that we cannot refer it to a later period than the Christian era. Like the tradition already referred to, it seems probably to have been a fragment of that '* tota " cabalicaexercitatio," as it is called by Kircher, in which he thought that the ancient Rabbis, " by their writings, either before, or imme- " diately after Christ, endeavoured to declare " in their Cabala the coming of the Saviour." This tradition is thus expressed : — : Db^:;^ hk "b^v^ an aii^ 'n n^iu; ■■ 2p:?^ D^ nb^MiD Dip Dl^< n'bik') ^jn"?^!:^ n^nii^ air^v The translation, as given by Buxtorf, is — " (There are) seven sons of men, who endure " throughout all ages : Adam the first, Methu- *' salem, Shem, Jacob, Amram, Abaja the Shilo- *' nite, and Elijah." In the merely nominal acceptation of these appellations, they would appear to have been arbitrarily selected as marks of some succession of time, without any farther meaning. But I * See Zohar, Parasche Bereschith. 35 think it will appear on inquiry into the force of the component parts of the several words, that they have been meant to convey an enigma- tical sense. With the exception of Adam, to which the epithet of first is annexed, as if to mark its ordinary sense, all these names have a double meaning, which, when analysed, will be found to serve as an index of the event which most especially distinguishes each period re- ferred to in succession. Thus the first line having expressed the rela- tion of the seven following names, to seven portions into which the whole duration of time is supposed to be divided ; Adam is given as the appellative of the first period, while Methuselah is assumed to distinguish the next in order. But Methuselah is compounded of r\D and rht^, and is literally, he hath sent forth and hath destroyed. And thus, that great and miraculous destruction of the flood, sent forth to " destroy man from the face of the earth," which took place in the second millenary of the world, is expressed by the name appropriated to the second place of this series. The third is Shem, which, as is well known, also bears the e 2 36 higher sense, of " the name of God," as applied to Christ, "the visible representation of the ever- " blessed Trinity," who is in the Old " Testa- " ment- styled the name of Jehovah*." Thus it well and sufficiently expresses that most im- mediate agency of God, as the guide, protector, and ruler of his chosen people, which especially continued from the times of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Moses, to the termination of the direct theocracy over Israel, when they " chose to themselves a king." And thus the third mil- lenary period, characterized by " the adoption, " and the glory, and the covenants," and by the continual assertion of the power of God to pre- serve his people, and to destroy their enemies, is distinguished by a name expressive of this theocratic rule. But if from hence it is to be expected that the name next in order should relate to the fourth millenary, and be expressive of its cha- racteristics, as relating to the fortunes of Israel, we shall remember that this period embraces the times of the various prophets, whom '* they * Parkhurst, Heb. Lex. p. 744. 37 ** killed and persecuted," of their successive defections from God by idolatry, and of their repeated punishment by captivity or the sword, till in the time when " the sceptre departed " from Judah," at the coming of Shiloh, the chief peculiarity of the nation was their exclu- sive denial of the favour of God to anv other people, and their stedfast belief that the tempo- ral dominion which engrossed all their thoughts and expectations was reserved for them as sole inheritors of " the promises made unto the " fathers." Accordingly the name of Jacob is the next which follows, and we can hardly doubt that it is here used with the same meaning as that annexed by Esau to it, namely, with the sense of deceit or perversity, of supplanting another, or striving to obtain his inheritance. Thus the synonj'^ms given by one of the Lexi- cographers for this word are, '* perversus, hsere- " ditatis invidus ;" and without seeking for a more particular application to any single event, we may conclude that the intention of a double sense, in this word also, has been made suffi- ciently evident, by its agreement with the gene- 38 ral character of Israel and Judah, from the days of Jeroboam to the advent of the Saviour. But if the clue, which we have hitherto em- ployed, fail not, the next name of this series ought to apply to the millenary at the commence- ment of which our Lord came into this world, and was " found in fashion as a man." And if this be the case, the name for which we should seek could be applicable to no other than himself. Accordingly it is Hamram ; and while we are at a loss to conjecture why one so little mentioned in the Scripture should have been selected, if the selection were on his own account, we can discern a reason why the father of Moses and Aaron should represent him, of whom Moses in action and authority, and Aaron in speech, were in their united ministry a type. But without such a reference, the construction of the name fully explains why it should have been chosen, as referring to the Saviour, of whom St. John has said, that the " Word was made flesh, and dwelt " amongst us;" and of whom the Baptist spoke, when he said, " Behold the Lamb of God :" for it happens very remarkably, that both these appellations are, as it were, embodied in forms 39 similar to this name, if not absolutely identical with it ; while the additional letter J3, which is affixed to them in this case, is the usual form of a pronoun, and serves to express, enigmatically, the relation of these names to more than any individual ; as being not only as a lamb, but their word or their lamb. t<"^Di^ is quoted by Buxtorf, as the Chaldee form for '^D^^, a lamb*; while Parkhurst, giving for n")^5*? the sense of a word or speech, quotes two passages of the Scrip- ture t in proof of his assertion. Thus no more change is made in these words than might suffice to show that they were in some sense to be universally, as well as personally, applicable ; while the intention of this addition seems to need no other explanation than that the words are applied to Him, who came to be the propitiation " for the sins of the whole world." If, then, it were the object of this tradition enig- matically to designate the commencement of the period of the Messiah as coinciding with the beginning of the fifth millenary of the world, it would seem that a name more appropriate than * Buxt. Lex. p. 38. f Deut. xxii. 2, and 2 Sam. xxii. 31. 40 that of Amram could scarcely have been selected. But as we know that the number of years which have elapsed since the first advent of our Lord, have now nearly extended to two millenaries, it will follow that the name by which the next, or sixth period is designated, must also relate to the Messiah, as prevalent in the influence of his Gospel, and the results of its doctrines, and the fulfilment of the prophecies, which concern his person or his attributes. Nor shall we be disappointed in this expecta- tion ; and we shall find, that not only is this the case, but that the terms made use of afford a tes- timony, not the less valuable because it is indi- rect, of the utter disagreement of opinion between the preservers of this ancient tradition, and the upholders of that heresy, which denies the divi- nity of the Messiah. The name which follows next in order is " Abajah the Shilonite;" and while it will be difficult to render any personal reason for the selection of the name of Abajah, or for the change of the name of Ahijah, who, as we are told, dwelt at Shiloh *, the force of the compo- * 1 Kings xix. 2. 41 nent parts of these names will, as before, solve the difficulty, and show the propriety of their use for the purpose which has been intended. I need hardly remind the reader that 2i^ ab, has the sense of " father*;" while the emphatic n, which divides this syllable from the latter part of the name, is not without a meaning ; for as n* Jah is one form of the name of God himself, so it especially intimates his eternal existence f ; and thus the solution of this name Abajah will be, " the everlasting Father." And therefore, as I have already observed, we have here a valu- able commentary on the sense anciently annexed to that passage of Isaiah, in which- he has pro- phesied of the Saviour, that " his name shall be " called" '"a^btl^ "IJ!^ ly ♦n^t;" for although the equivalent word ^y, or everlasting, is substi- tuted for ^^ yet the subsequent mention of Shi- lom, in connexion with this expression, shows that this passage of Isaiah must have been in the contemplation of the framer of these enigmatical lines; for " the Shilonite," which is added as if explanatory of the name Abajah, is evidently See Parkliurst, Lex. p. 3. f See Parkhurst, p. 157. ih i f X Isaiah ix. 6. 42 meant to have reference to the latter clause of the sentence in the book of Isaiah ; while the word Shiloh, being not only similar to Shilom, but in another sense being especially applied to the Messiah, as the Shiloh who should come, the force of these united expressions is well applied to signify that " government and peace," of the increase of which the prophet has declared there shall be no end. The seventh millenary still remains ; and as it must synchronize with that period described in the Apocalypse by the binding of Satan, and by the reward of those who " lived and reigned " with Christ a thousand years;" so the name made use of to designate it, ought to be expres- sive of this state of blessedness and peace. It is accordingly Elijah, n'bt^, which is composed of *7}^ and n% and literally means God the Lord, as protector, as preserver, and also as being over all, and continually present ; such being the separate force of these two names, and such, consequently, the result of their combination. While, therefore, the ineffable name of God is here distinctly given to the Messiah, and while the attributes of eternal existence, and of omni- 43 potence, are applied to him, even as to the Father, still in such connexion with his office of Atonement, with the preaching of his Gospel, and with its results upon the world, as to leave no doubt that the person, the office, and the power of Christ, were here meant to be de- scribed ; we can scarcely avoid the conclusion, that this ancient tradition not only expresses the scriptural doctrine concerning " the Word," which " became flesh and dwelt amongst us;" but that it leads to a very strong presumption, that the coaiputation of time with which it most nearly coincides, is nearest to the truth. Although it were fruitless to seek for any his- torical proof by which the time from whence this tradition has been handed down might be determined, yet the internal evidence which is involved in it bears very strongly upon the ques- tion as to the period at which it must be supposed that the Hebrew computation was forged, if such a forgery ever took place. It is obvious that this tradition not only agrees with the scheme of the Hebrew chronology as to the total amount of each, but that it also places the events which are alluded to, in the same por- /2 44 tions of that whole duration. Most especially the agreement as to the time at which the first advent of our Lord took place, is such that, even if we suppose these lines to have been written by a Hebrew Christian long subsequent to the events which they detail, this solution will only ex- change one difficulty for another. Whoever might be the author, would not conceal the main import of his forgery, nor would he be satisfied that it should be taken merely in the literal sense in which it would have borne no more definite meaning than the tradition already attributed to the " house of Elias." But thus it must have contained so plain a declaration that Jesus was the true Messiah, drawn from Jewish sources, and in perfect agreement with the Jewish com- putation, that if either the first or subsequent compilers of the Talmudic writings had been aware of the testimony contained in it, they must either have rejected it altogether as a for- gery, and have refused to admit it into their compilation, or else have acknowledged that so express a testimony proved them to be in error when they rejected Jesus of Nazareth. I think it will appear far more probable that this writing, 45 being ancient, had ceased to be understood be- yond its literal sense ; and that thus those who admitted it among their collection of Jewish tra- ditions, attached to it no other importance than it obtained from agreeing with that computation of seven chiliads, which they already believed to be correct. Such indeed, from the first century of our era, has been the hostility between Jews and Christians, and especially between Jews and Jewish converts to the Christian faith, that had these lines been composed by one of the latter, we can scarcely suppose it possible that they should ever have been received or repeated by those very persons, who were best able to show, that no such tradition had existed before that period, and least inclined to add to their own collections of traditionary knowledge any thing proceeding from persons whom, beyond all others, they despised and hated. If, indeed, we were not in possession of the book of Enoch, and especially of the prophecy of ten weeks, coincident with seven chiliads, we might have been at a loss to conjecture from what source such knowledge as that which the framer of these lines must have possessed, could 46 have been obtained. But since both the compu- tation included in them, the doctrine and the facts to which they relate, might be gathered from the book of Enoch, it appears to me, that from the probable antiquity of this tradition arises also an additional probability of the antiquity of that book, and of the truth of that computation used in the Hebrew Scriptures, with which it coin- cides. I will not pursue this part of the subject farther than to add, how obviously the early knowledge of such a tradition among the Jews, adds to the necessity that an earlier date than has usually been assigned to the supposed alteration of the Hebrew chronology, should be established, in order to support whatever theory of the probable cause of such a change might be advanced ; since it now appears nearly certain, that the wish to invalidate the belief of Christians as to the time of the Messiah's appearance, could not have led to any such proceeding on the part of the Jews. Doubtless we should act very wrongly if we were to attach any weight to such a tradition as that which I have described, if it appeared to 47 militate against any passage of Scripture ; or even if the total silence of the voice of inspiration on this subject were negatively to make it pro- bable that such an opinion must be erroneous. But I think it may appear that the computation of these millennial periods is not unsupported by the Scriptures. It is, in the first place, difficult to account for that prevalence of this opinion, which is by all authors acknowledged to have been nearly universal in the early church, unless by the supposition that it was then grounded on the Scriptures by those who supported it. With regard to the millennial period of the Apocalypse, this must be admitted so far as relates to the last chiliad : and I shall hereafter endeavour to show, that there are at least some reasons, which may lead us to the same conclusion with regard to the six previous chiliads. We must remember, that however the various secrets supposed to be contained in the numerical cabala may have been by degrees distorted into absurdity, there must still have been some foun- dation of truth on which this superstructure of error was afterwards built. It may at least be concluded, that if the total duration of the world. 48 or the various parts of that duration, had ori- ginally been associated with any definite num- bers, they would, very probably, serve as the foundation of a system which should exaggerate the occult powers of numbers in general, and thus serve, by degrees, to throw doubt over any numerical tradition, and to confuse the results which might otherwise have been derivable from it. And in this probable consequence we may, perhaps, trace a merciful and wise provision, by which God has appointed that events yet future, and delayed for coming ages, might be foreshown to his saints of old, under the Patriarchal dis- pensation, with some collateral aid of evidence derived from their knowledge of an appointed duration for each of the future revelations of the Law and Gospel ; while, as time passed on, and the evidence of events became multiplied, this numeral evidence decreased in like proportion, till at length the testimony of an indefinite, though general expectation, was all which re- mained to mark the agreement of the Messiah's coming with " the fulness of time," the period for which it had been appointed. So when, after the coming of our Lord, the 49 dispensation of the last age and time commenced, it seems as if the ancient opinions upon this sub- ject had been so far revived, that men expected with confidence the coincidence of the sixth mil- lenary of the world, with our Saviour's return in glory. Taught indeed, as I imagine that the earlier Christians were, to ascribe an erroneous date to the creation of the world, by their agreement with the numbers of the Septuagint, it neces- sarily followed, that their calculation was mis- taken, and that the opinion on which that calcu- lation was founded fell into neglect, since there was no suspicion that the chronology itself had been falsely stated. But as years have since passed on, and century after century has again supplied events to guide our observations, we have ajDproximated to the same position as that in which men were placed previous to our Lord's first advent ; and if the ancient persuasion be now again renewed, and it should appear probable that the same calculus which taught men to expect the fulfilment of the former pro- phecies, may direct us also to look for the com- pletion of those which regard the latter days, 9 50 his coincidence will hardly be denied to be rather a presumption of truth than an evidence of error. It is true that no weight can be attached to these speculations when taken singly, but when they are found to add additional evidence to that which is to be collected from other sources, the many rays which are thus found to converge towards the same focus, afford a light, the guid- ance of which is not the less to be relied on, that the independent sources from which it has been supplied combine themselves to point to a com- mon termination, as the}'^ direct their light to- wards the same spot. The passages which are found in the Psalms, and in the second epistle of St. Peter, relative to the mystical identity of a thousand years, with a scriptural day, or aiiav, have been so frequently taken notice of, that I will only add the observa- tion of a learned author on the latter *. It may serve as an instance of that recurrence to the ancient opinion of the church, of which I have already spoken. * King's •' Morsels of Criticism," p. 552. 51 He says, " It is impossible to read the words (' One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day,') without recollecting that the most ancient opinion in the church really was, that as the instituted week consists of six days and a Sabbath, so the duration of the imperfect state of the world on earth, would be six thousand years, and then would come the perfected state of it, or its true Sabbath. And if to this we add the consideration of those w^ords of our Lord, ' Destroy this temple, and in three days I will build it up,' and consider the three days in which his body lay in the grave, as typical of three thousand years, (or rather reckoning it as the days themselves during which his body lay in the grave, were com- puted,) of the several portions, or parts, of three thousand years, which should pass be- tween the time of his crucifixion, and being denied on earth : (when he first came as the Messiah,) and his second coming in glory : I say, if we consider all this rightly, we cannot but perceive that then, the dawn of the third ^2 52 " prophetical day, will exactly coincide with the " end of six thousand years of the world, or " beginning of the great Sabbath. " And we cannot but thence be led to suspect, " that the apostle meant something more by '* these words, than merely to inform us that " a great length of time was the same to the " Almighty as a short one, as to the real com- " pletion of his promises. " In short, we cannot but suspect that he " meant to lead us to compute a certain deter- " minate period, and even one exactly coincident " with that mentioned by St. John, and also " with that mentioned by Daniel." (P. 552.) Hosea vi. 1, 2, contains a very remarkable passage which appears to add strength to the supposition, that the third great day is coinci- dent with the future coming of the Lord, and with the restoration of the Jewish nation to the favour of God. The prophet's words are, " Come " and let us return unto the Lord, for he hath " torn, and he will heal us ; he hath smitten, " and he will bind us up." 2. " After two days will he revive us ; in the 53 " third day he will raise us up, and we shall live *' in his sight." According to Montfaucon's Hexapla, the He- brew and Vuloate ao:ree in the same sense for Verse 2. — " Vivificabit nos." But while the versions of Aquila and Symmachus have " revi- " viscere faciet nos," the LXX. give " Sanos " faciet nos," while another translation has " Sanos demonstrabit nos." Thus the general sense to be collected from these translations, is that of re-appearance after a long period of obscurity, or a revival from a suspension of the functions of life. It is hardly necessary to ob- serve how exactly this description coincides with the state in which the Jewish nation has remained during the times of the Christian dis- pensation. But it is to be observed also, that the sense given to the first verse of this chapter in our Bibles, appears not to be the most exact one. — " He hath torn, and he will heal us ; he hath " smitten, and he will bind us up," — should be rather, " he hath dispersed, and he will heal "us; he hath smitten, and he will collect us *' together," where the members of the sue- 54 cessive parallels are inverted, in a manner which Bishop Jebb has shown to be no unfrequent mode of expression in Scriptural poetry. Thus the parallels would be "■ He hath smit- " ten and he will heal us ; he hath dispersed, " and he will collect us together." The allusion is then more evidently appro- priate, and serves to restrict the sense of the following verse to the period of the restoration of Israel, while the date supplied, marks out the precise time at which that restoration shall synchronize with the coming of the Son of man. The word P]")D, as applied to the supposed death of Joseph, has been rendered by our trans- lators, " rent in pieces * ;" and as it appears to be used in this place metaphorically, with a re- ference to its occurrence in the former chapter f, it would seem to have the sense of separation or dispersion. For the Hebrew, 13i!^2n% the Hexapla gives " Alligabit fasciis nos ;" and Symmachus has, " Alligabit nos." The general and primary * Gen. xxxvii. 33. f Hosea v. 14. 55 sense of the verbs b^Ti ligavit, i;:in conjunxit, pin pHcavit, and 8t^m circumligavit, from which this word is made, appears to be that of a mutual bond and connexion, which prevents any separation ; and such, I conclude, ought to be the force of the word in this place. As of the millennial period, Isaiah has fore- told, that "all shall know the Lord, from the " least even to the greatest;" so the prophet here declares, " then shall we know, shall we " follow the Lord. His presence is prepared as " the morning." For it is to be observed that the primary sense of K^fD is to find, or, intran- sitively, to be present. And, therefore, the men- tion of a general knowledge of the Lord, as in combination with his future advent, is most ap- propriately so introduced by the Prophet, as to mark the sense of his former words. The Prophet had declared, at the end of the third chapter, that the scope of his vision ex- tended to the latest ages of the house of Israel ; for after the description of their present state, " for many days without a king, and without a " prince, and without a sacrifice," it is added, 56 '' Afterward shall the children of Israel return, " and seek the Lord their God, and David their " king, and shall fear the Lord and his goodness '* in the latter days." Thus the prophetic invitation, " Come, and " let us return unto the Lord," separated, as it is, from the former passage only by an episode concerning the judgments of God, is a conti- nuation of the previous prophecy concerning the return of the children of Israel in the latter days; and if either the analogy of scriptural terms, the connexion of these several parts, or the most exact sense of the words which are made use of, may be supposed to indicate their true meaning, we shall be led to the conclusion, that an allu- sion to the two millennial days of the dispensation of the Gospel of Christ, is here made in such a manner as to afford much support to our opinion, that the expectation of such successive periods has not only been handed down by tradition, but that it is also confirmed by some authority of Scripture. It is very remarkable that the Hebrew words used for the third day, are ^ii^'btS^n DVl, in which 57 the prefix of the emphatic n to i^'i^tif is equi- valent to such an emphasis as we should express by the third day, indicating that, for some reason, the day referred to is to be distinguished from others. When the same words occur in the book of Genesis, to describe the third day of the creation no such emphasis as this is used ; and from hence also we may conclude, that the sense of the two passages is not identical. Doubtless this prophecy has some reference, as the critics have usually supposed, to the time during which our Lord remained in the grave ; and this allu- s.ion is indeed so obvious, that the double sense, which I have endeavoured to elucidate, may have remained unnoticed from this cause. If, how- ever, as I imagine, these two explanations mutually concur, and serve to strengthen each other, this testimony will not be thought inappli- cable to my present purpose, because it admits of a double explanation, such as that given by our Lord himself to the raising up of the serpent in the wilderness ; but applied to two periods, the first that at which Jesus, having died, " rose " again;" the second, that at which " those who " sleep in Jesus will God bring with him," and h 58 when, " every man in his own order, Christ the '* first-fruits, afterwards thev that are Christ's at " his coming," shall arise. A late admirable writer has so forcibly shewn the agreement of this sense of the prophecy which I have quoted, with the manner in which the parables relative to our Lord's future advent are expressed, that his conclusions will hardly be denied *. — " 1 cannot but think that to those " who are versed in the language of the Scrip- " tures, something is delivered which will bring " us nearer than we could expect to the time of " Christ's second advent. If any such thing is "to be obtained, we must discover it by com- " paring together the expressions in those several " parables which relate to this matter. In one " of these it is said, ' Watch ye, therefore, for " ye know not when the master of the house " Cometh, at even or at midnight, or at cock- " crowing, or in the morning.' To say that " w^e know not at which of these, is to say that " at one of these he will come; and now the " question will be, how these expressions are to * Sermons by Rev. W. Jones, of Nayland, vol. i. p. 86. 59 " be taken ? They are certainly figurative. *' The master of the house is no common master " of a family, but the Lord Christ himself, and " therefore the hours here spoken of, are not " those of a common day." He then alludes to the expressions of St. Peter, and to St. Paul's declaration, that " A rest, or Sabbath, remaineth " for the people of God," adding, '' At what " time can that Sabbath be expected to com- " mence, but at the end of six days, such as we " have already mentioned. It is a Sabbath of " a thousand years ; and if we are consistent " in our computation, it must be preceded by a " week whose days are of the same length. If " we go back with this reckoning to the expres- " sion of our Saviour in his parable ; then the " * even' there spoken of must be understood of " the conclusion of the sixth day of the world, " which immediately precedes the great Sabbath, " or seventh," &c. Having shewn that we must infer from the relation given by St. Luke *, that the master of the house" must come either at midnight or * Luke xii. '68. h 2 60 at the cock-crowing, this excellent writer thus proceeds : — " In the parable of the ten virgins, " which undoubtedly must be interpreted of " Christ's second coming, but one of these divi- " sions is left to us; it being there said, * At " midnight there was a cry made. Behold the " bridegroom cometh.' So that in the midnight " of this day, that is of this thousand years in " which we now live, the Scripture hath given us " reason to expect the coming of the Son of man, " and if the Scriptural day be divided into por- " tions corresponding with those of the natural " day, that midnight may be even now at hand." Nor is it only by modern commentators that this mystical sense has been attributed to pas- sages which, at first sight, appear to relate only to an ordinary day. " The Scriptures," says Origen*, " often appear to call a whole age to- " day." As in the Psalms it is said, " To-day "if ye will hear his voice harden not your " hearts." And in Joshua we find this plain declaration, " Depart not from the Lord in the " days of to-day, (ev rate (T?j^£pov rj/uepotc)." But * Origen de Oratione, p. 249. 61 if to-day is the whole of this age (o irag ovto^ atatv), perhaps yesterday means the past age. And this I suspect to be expressed in the Psalms, and by Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrews. In the Psalms '^ A thousand years are in thy sight " as yesterday, which hath departed :" which yesterday is that remarkable space of a thousand years, compared to yesterday, as distinct from to-day. But by the Apostle it is written, Jesus Christ, yesterday and to-day, himself, and to all ages (tig Tovg aiwyaq). Nor do I think it wonder- ful that a whole age should be computed by God as the space of one of our days, or less. For we must examine whether those things which are spoken of feasts and assemblies, de- scribed by days and months and (Kaepotg) times and years, may be referred to ages. For if the law has a shadow of things to come, it follows that those many sabbaths are a shadow of many days, and that the new moons should recur at certain intervals of time, according to the con- junction, of I know not what moon, with a cer- tain sun, (ETrtTcXou/iEVTjc) bciug finished. But if both the first month and its tenth, to its fourteenth day, and the feast of unleavened 62 bread, (rwv alvjutov) from the fourteenth to the twenty-first day, has a shadow of things to come, who is there so wise and so favoured by God, that he may behold the first as of many months, and the tenth day thereof and the remainder? But why need I speak of the feast of seven weeks of days, and of the seventh month, whose new moon is the day of trumpets, with that tenth day of propitiation ; things understood alone by the God who hath ordained them. Who hath perceived so clearly the mind of Christ that he can explain the seven years of liberty for Jewish servants, of the remission of debts, and of ceasing from the cultivation of the sacred land ? There is, moreover, beyond the feast of seven years, that which is called the jubilee, which, how its scope is to be made evi- dent, or what true laws are to be fulfilled in it, is in the knowledge of no one save of him who hath beheld the father's will concerning his ordinance, (atwcrt) in all ages, according to his inscrutable judgments and untraceable paths. A difficulty has often oppressed me when com- paring two of the Apostle's expressions, how it should be the fulness of ages (avvrtXrina atwvwv) 63 in which once for the doing away witli sins (adernaiv riov ajuapriwv) Jesus has appeared, if in future times, there are ages to succeed them, (aiWVfC jltETa TOVTOV iTTipyOfXtVOl). For these are his words in the Epistle to the Hebrews, " Nuw Se airu^ s-m avvreXeia twv anovu)\>, " £iQ aOerrimv twv afxapTHOv, ^la Tr\Q Bvaiaq avrov " ire re" o o g o _B (5 < pt 5° S .™ S o> ■- : !^ S 3Eji re "5 S = § 3 1- ??S g O fD* O og o B P il g w £ M O Q o og S 3 » re „ S3 1 re 1 "< H " pi 4f 030 3 _3 i B =^_ = g Ifi oi B re Ci *^ "^ Old o'p-^ "^ £1. EJ 2 '^ ft) i-^ -2 C 7 If |b g 3 3 B to ^ to re M . * •<: p t-i T S 3- 1 ^ 7, 3 R:o " g Ifi og 3 re rt -S "§1^3 re 0-3 3- CLre re p_ 2>0 g ifi _3 c re i>l|oiici%j llff Sit aS'pog. 0- ?• 2 ^ 94 Since the Scripture can neither encourage us to attempt what is impossible, nor absurd, I as- sume that the command given in the Apocalypse, to " count the number of the beast," is neither beyond our power of fulfilment, nor unworthy of our most careful attention. On the supposition, therefore, that this number may be declared to us, as an index or key, by the use of which the Apocalyptical synchronisms may most correctly be observed, I have con- structed the table which I am about to describe, in order to show by it, that the hypothesis by which the appointed duration of the Gospel dis- pensation is limited to two thousand years, is not without confirmation from the coincidences which arise from its use. The thousands mentioned by Ezekiel, and the days occupied by the plagues of Egypt, which have been already referred to, being placed in the first and second columns, the third contains the six seals of the Apocalypse, which in agreement with other commentators, and especially with Vitringa, I assume to occupy the whole period from the first coming of Christ till in the days when the seventh angel shall 95 begin to sound, the " mystery of God shall be finished." In order to explain the principle upon which a certain duration has been assigned in this table, to each of the seals ; it will first be neces- sary to inquire whether any such order appears to be observed in the prophecy of the Apoca- lypse, that we may from thence infer, how the several spaces contained therein, may be mea- sured, on the supposition that their total amount is two thousand years. Of the seven seals, which as I have already stated, are assumed to reach from the commencement to the end of the pro- phetic scheme ; six are consecutive periods of preparation under the present state of things in this world, for the seventh period, under a better state of consummation as to good, and abolition as to evil. Thus Grotius has remarked *, that " Senarius numerus res hujus mundi signi- " ficat, ut septenarius, res sseculi melioris." — Whether indeed it were derived from the days of the creation, or from any of those traditional sources which I have already indicated, there * Crit. Sac, vol. vii., p. 4185. 96 can be little doubt that this reference to the seventh number was universally acknowledged among the Jews, So many commentators have decided, that the seventh seal is to be considered as contempo- raneous with the seventh thunder, trumpet, and vial; that it will be sufficient to refer to them, and particularly to the commentary of the learned Vitringa, for proofs of this coincidence. While, therefore, the six seals occupy the whole space previous to the seventh ; there is sufficient proof, which is so well known that I need only refer my readers to it in the several works on this subject, that the trumpets, thunders, and vials, occupy smaller spaces of time. But if the orderly arrangement of this prophecy has any meaning, or if the accuracy of its divisions, where they are known to us, may lead to the inference, that all the divisions referred to are equally exact ; it will be probable, that these eighteen periods, which must occupy nearly the whole space of the prophecy, are equal as well as consecutive. 1 assume this fact, therefore, in the following calculations. Thus we have, in the first place, six greater 97 periods, and, in the next eighteen smaller ones, the termination both of the greater and lesser divisions being coincident. Assuming, then, as before, that two thousand years is the probable duration of the whole series of events foreshewn in this prophecy, we shall recollect, that " In the days of the voice of the '' seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, " the mystery of God should be finished *." As also, that, when " the seventh angel poured out " his vial into the air, there came a great voice " out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, " saying. It is done." Thus, then, a very small period is to elapse after the beginning of the seventh trumpet sound, or the commencement of pouring forth the seventh vial. If, therefore, the whole space referred to, be two thousand years ; the time occupied by the six seals, or by the successive trumpets, thun- ders, and vials, must very closely approximate to two thousand years, while yet it must not coincide with it. But be this number what it may, it must not * Compare also Rev. xi. 19. n 98 only be nearly two thousand, but if we rightly expect that the various periods should be equal to each other, the number required must be divisible by six for the duration of each seal, and by eighteen for the length of each lesser period. The number 1998 is thus divisible, and as it is the nearest number to 2000, which is so, the terms of the prophecy require that it should be assumed as the total duration of the six seals, each of which will therefore occupy 333 years, while the eighteen lesser periods will be each 111 years. It has often been observed, that the "number " of the beast," is a repetition of the same digit three times. Irenosus says of it, " Esse nume- " rum sexcentos sexaginta sex, quod est sexies " centeni et deni sexies, et singulares sex, in " recapitulationem universse apostasies ejus, quae '' facta est in sex millibus annorum." But without attempting to decide what mystery may be concealed under this form, we may at least think it highly probable that this repetition of the same figure is not accidental : and if we were to suppose that this peculiarity were to be 99 kept in view, it is very remarkable that the divisions indicated by the number 1998, both for the seals, and for the other emblems, are also repetitions of the same digit ; for the seals 333, and for the others 111 years, being the periods thus prescribed. But if this be not accidental, it would follow that the whole of the eighteen periods ought to possess the same peculiarity, and this is accordingly the case, for they will be successively 111, 222, 333, 444, 555, 666, 111, 888, and 999. The nature of the decimal notation makes it impossible to proceed with numbers of precisely the same character, since the remainder must consist of four digits each. They are 1110, 1221, 1332, 1443, 1554, 1665, 1776, 1887, and 1998 ; in all of which it will be observed, that the addition of the first and last digit amounts to the same sum as that of each of the other figures, so that they still approximate, as closely as the nota- tion will admit, to the same form as before. As all these numbers have been produced by a train of reasoning, which is unconnected with the number 666, their universal coincidence with its peculiarity, is at least very remark- able. 7l2 100 But if, as I have assumed, it be probable that the number 666 contains a numerical key to the relation of the numbers mentioned by Daniel and by St. John, this probability will certainly be increased by the occurrence of these various coincidences. In the second, third, fourth and fifth columns of the table, is shown the division of the seals, with that of the trumpets, thunders, and vials, arranged in the manner which I have described, and severally making up the total sum of two thousand, by the addition of two to each. These two years I assume to represent the space which shall be measured by the beginning of the Angel to sound, after which the mystery of God shall be finished. The next column contains the number of the beast, of which I must admit, that the general mode of explaining what is meant by it, has been by referring to the nume- ral power of various letters, which at once form some applicable word, and make up in their aggregate amount this given number ; but it appears to me, that no merely inferential sense of any word should be admitted till the more usual and literal sense is found inadequate to 101 afford any solution of the diflBculty which may occur in its interpretation. The words of Euclid, " Apt^^oc to ek fxova^iov ** (Tu-yKretjUEvov 7rXrj0oc," number is a multitude com- posed of units ; are quoted by Parkhurst under this head, as an explanation of the primary sense of the word. He notices that in Luke xxii. 3, and John vi. 10, the word is applied simply to a numerical amount, and cites also Joseph us and Herodotus to the same effect. This word is used with the same literal sig- nification in another part of the Apocalypse, (chap. XX. 8,) where it expresses the aggregate number of the nations of the earth. But it is evident, that a mere estimate of amount may equally serve to express either a multitude as of persons, or an accumulation as of time, or years. We know that ^^ij^i^^aro, here translated "count," is derived from the ^r\<^oi, or small pebbles origi- nally used for the addition of numbers, and in this sense, namely, to count or reckon up the cost, the word is used in the only place where it again occurs in the N. T. 1 assume, then, that to " count" this number. 102 is to compute, by number, the period of dura- tion assigned to whatever power is designated as "the Beast ;" and when this number is said to be six hundred three score and six, it would seem that no violence is offered to the context, or to the general sense of that form of expression which is made use of, if the same meaning be annexed to this number, as to others in the Apo- calypse, which have been usually considered to denote a succession of prophetic days, or ordi- nary years. In such a sense, this number will denote the existence of " the beast" for six hundred and sixty-six years ; or the counting of that number of years will in some manner explain the dura- tion of the evils referred to under this name. But our interpretation appears to be somewhat more precisely limited, by the expression, that this number is " the number of a man." The years through which a man exists may be said to be his number according to a Scriptural form of expression, as when it is said, " Lord, " let me know the number of my days." But it is remarkable that the Apocalypse appears to speak of three " woes," as running 103 throughout the whole period of the prophecy ; and while St. John assures us that there were Antichrists even in his day, and St. Paul speaks of another more full revelation of the " man of " sin" as yet future, the prophet Daniel makes the destruction of the beast in " the fiery flame" to synchronize with the end of the prophetic period. But as the duration of life includes the rise from infancy to adolescence, as it is especially marked by the time of manhood, and yet in- cludes also the decline of age ; so this number may by a threefold application of the prophetic calculus, mark out the several stages of the rise, the prevalence, and the downfall, of that power referred to as the beast. But very re- markably, the whole period of 1998, includes precisely three portions of 666 years. And if we were disposed to characterize these successive periods as measuring the " woes" of perverse error, of blind superstition, and of audacious infidelity; it will be found that the facts of history, so far as it has proceeded, would enable us to approximate very closely to an agreement between the times and the events referred to. 104 The seventh and eighth cohimiis of the table contain this number, as applied to measure these spaces, to which, as in the other cases, is added the short time assigned to the beginning of the last trumpet's sounding. It is indeed fruitless to speculate upon the reasons which might be assigned for the application of this number of six, thus repeated as a mark of the successive periods of evil in this world. It may be suffi- cient to remind the reader, that such phraseology is in accordance with the many Hebraisms which are scattered through the Apocalypse. The re- mark of Philo as to this number, may serve to show how widely diffused the opinion was, that the number? six and seven were in some manner appropriate, the former to earthly, the latter to heavenly things. He says, " The prophet called " the sabbath a day of rest, not only because " after six days the people rested from their " accustomed works, but because the seventh " number, both by us, and by the world in " general, is reputed the most peaceful, the " most victorious over enmity, and the most "opposite to strife*.'' He observes also in * Philo Jud. Leg. Alleg., p. 31. 105 another place, '' It is intended that the existence *' both of mortal and immortal things should be " indicated by their several numbers, things " mortal being measured by the number six, but '' immortal and blessed things by seven*," Nor need we doubt that in the word of God some allusion is made to this distinction, as typical of the future period of the millennial rest ; for although the lamb slain in the first month was a type of the " Lamb slain from the " foundation of the world/' and although the deliverance from Egypt at that period may antecedently refer to the deliverance of the human race from the bond of Satan, by the first promise of the future Messiah, yet the seventh month alone was set apart as holy. In it the feast of trumpets, and the day of atonement, and the feast of tabernacles, from the fifteenth to the twenty-second day, made this month as it were a consecrated period, a distinction which was strengthened by the commencement of the reck- oning of the years of Jubilee, and of the sab- battical years also, from its first day. * Philo Judseus de Abrahamo, p. 227. 106 While, therefore, we must admit that some reference distinct from that which relates to the weekly sabbath, has been made to the seventh number in the types of the Mosaic law, it will not appear futile to remark the parallel distinc- tion which is here evident in the use of the number six. With respect to the ninth column, in which these same figures thrice repeated, with a divi- sion of one year between each number, are characterized as *' time, times, and the dividing " of time," I must remark, that as this portion of the prophecy of Daniel confessedly relates to ** the fourth" or Roman kingdom, and extends to the time when " the judgment shall sit ;" so the theory which would identify these periods with the " time, times, and a half," afterwards mentioned by the prophet, seems to be confuted by the event ; since that period has either expired, or must not be reckoned from the rise of the fourth kingdom. It seems as if the two passages were purposely varied in the original, while the language of prophecy, referring to one event, is, on the contrary, generally uniform in expression. Thus, in the seventh chapter, the 107 words used are :hQ^ ^^"'Vl pV, while in the twelfth this expression is changed for nVID*? *Vm DnV1?!2- It has indeed been observed, that the one is according to the Hebrew, the other to the Chaldee idiom, but I can find little foundation for this opinion. It would seem that Ji^D had rather the sense of separation, than that of numeral division, as appears from its use in the name of Peleg ; while, on the contrary, there can be no doubt that i'^r\ has been exactly translated " half." It likewise seems that ly was certainly used to express a larger, and "IJ^ID a lesser number, and hence also a presumption would arise, that the same periods are not denoted in both places. . Although, therefore, I have been only led to this conjecture, by observing, that if a division as of separation, is here meant, the three num- bers, with their requisite year of division be- tween each, will then make up the whole of the two millenary periods ; I have yet thought, that the coincidence of this conjecture with those which follow, may make it worthy of attention. o2 108 The next column contains the numbers 1334 and 666, the number 1334 being taken instead of 1335, because the prophet having said that he who waiteth, that is, who attains to the end of his computed period, shall come to the thou- sand three hundred and five and thirty days, while, in all other cases, he has said that there " shall be" a specific number of days; it there- fore follows that this number must be exclusive of the final day, since it is attained to at the end of the day previous to the last, which, therefore, must not be reckoned. But as this number reaches to the end, and therefore commences long after the beginning of the prophecy, we must supply a date from which it may be reckoned ; and if 666 be supposed to supply to us this key, the addition of these two numbers will then make up the whole millennial sums, since 1334 + 666 is 2000. Yet, as I have before observed, since there seems no reason to question the usual computa- tion, which has assigned to the time, times and a half of the last chapter of Daniel, a period of 1260 years, it will follow that if the number 666 be a key to these several durations, it ought to 109 express this also. But as between 1334 and 1260 there is an interval of seventy-four years, so we shall remember that the " scattering of " the holy people," at the destruction of Jeru- salem, took place at that very date, and if to this we add 666, and also 1260, it will be found to amount, as before, to 2000. In what order these sums are to be taken, or whether they may be reckoned in double or reversed order, I will not now attempt to decide ; in either case the numeral accuracy of their amount is evident. Whether, therefore, we ought to compute a num- ber of 666 years of preparation for the final deve- lopment, or of decline subsequent to 1260 years of the domination of whatever power may be referred to, it is not now necessary to inquire. In the next column I have conjecturally placed the number 1296, instead of 1290, for the following reasons. It is well known that Josephus has made use of the former number ; from which we may infer that it was to be found in some copies at that time. Grotius, indeed, who, in his commentary observes, " 1296 dixit Josephus," and says also, " putatur hoc tempus ab urbe '' capta et interdictis ritibus," adds, by way of no accounting for this difference, " modicum nee " Praetor curat nee Propheta." But it seems probable that there has been some corruption in the present text ; for the word nt^K, translated blessed, is very similar in the form of its letters to nii^Ji^, which would have been the word pro- bably used for six, had the passage originally borne that meaning. I think it will also appear that the grammar of this verse is defective as it now stands, since the word ^Iti^t^ is not used in the same manner as in the first Psalm, the relative pronoun bein^ omitted ; while on the contrary, if this word be considered as redundant, the rest of the sentence is perfect, and complete, without it. But if we may rightly conclude that the daily sacrifice was taken away according to the prophet's warning, when " the vail of the temple was rent in twain " from the top to the bottom," at the crucifixion of our Lord and Saviour ; then the commence- ment of this number ought to be dated from that period. If, therefore, we add to thirty-seven, the year of our Lord's death, 666, and 1296 also, the total sum will be 1999 ; and it is very remarkable that the prophet has here made use Ill of another mode of expression, " from the time " that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away ;" thus indicating, that the calculation is to begin beyond that period. If, therefore, we reckon in the excluded year, the sum, as before, amounts to 2000. It must be remarked, also, that as the number 111 was pointed out as the smallest division made use of in the Apocalypse; so three inter- vals of thirty-seven years, both exactly make up this number, and fall upon the dates of thirty- seven and seventy-four, already assumed for the fixed points from which we are to reckon, as being the dates of the crucifixion of our Lord, and of the destruction of Jerusalem. Thus these several calculations, in which the numbers are given, by the voice of prophecy, all appear most remarkably to coincide in the same sum, if we suppose that the number 666 may be rightly used to explain them. In the next column I have marked a singular coincidence, which arises from the supposition that the "vision of the evening and the morning," in the book of Daniel, has respect to the Maho- metan apostacy. ^ 112 If we read with the Vatican septuagint 2400 days, or years, and reckon the number from the end of seventy years from the commencement of the captivity, that is to say, from 512 B.C., as fixed by Dr. Hales' computation, which gives B. c. 582, for the date at which the temple was destroyed ; this period will then have elapsed in 1888 years from the advent of our Lord. But on looking at the successive dates appropriated to the " vials," we find that the sixth vial, which is said to be poured " upon the great river " Euphrates," falls upon the year 1887. These numbers, indeed, being in a much greater degree conjectural, than those which have preceded them, the same argument of pre- vious desio;n cannot be drawn from them. In the last column, however, I have noted a coincidence which is very remarkable. The Apocalypse has expressly taught us, that power was given to that beast, by whom, in com- mon with our most accurate commentators, I understand the Mahometan power, to ''continue " forty and two months." But if the use of " months" ought here, as I apprehend, to designate such years as are mea- 113 sured by the moon's course, and such also as are used in the computation of the Hegira ; then 1260 such years will amount to 1222 of our years. But if, as before, we take 666 for a key to this duration, 666 added to 1222, will amount to 1888, being, as I have already observed, the very year in which, by the independent calcu- lation of the series of vials, the sixth vial is poured " upon the Euphrates." Whatever importance we may allow to these various coincidences, it will be at least so difficult to attribute them to chance alone, that I cannot but consider them as affording no slight evidence in favour of the computation with which they coincide ; and of the book from which that com- putation appears to have been derived. If, indeed, one who should find various por- tions of some machine scattered from place to place, should discover, on comparison, that the several wheels were fitted to each other ; that their proportions corresponded in a certain relation, and that, when put together, they would form a series capable of fulfilling some result of mecha- nical contrivance, the finder would scarcely at- tribute such an adaptation to chance, but would P 114 at least infer from it, that the machine must have been previously made in some similar form, if not identically with the same combinations, as those of which he might have observed it to be susceptible. And thus I would add, in this case also, may we observe some trace of combination, in order to produce a determined result, not only in that agreement of numbers which I have detailed, but in the relation of those numbers to the agree- ment of facts indicated by them. It has been observed by man}^ commentators that there is a certain correspondence between the trumpets and vials as to the sequence of their subjects, each in turn relating to the earth, the sea, the waters, the sun, the seat of the beast, and the Euphrates ; but it will be seen, on consulting the table, that the space intervening between each trumpet and its corresponding vial is, in every case, 1334 years, if we reckon the initial and final years of the series, while if these two years are omitted, the sum corresponds with the amount of two periods of 666 years. In both these results it seems that we can hardly be tracing the work of chance. 115 In my description ot" this table, I have only referred to it, as beino- a strong collateral test of the antiquity and truth of that calculation which is contained in the book of Enoch. I believe, however, that if v^^e were to trace the facts of the moral history of Christianity, as they bear upon those mutations of opinion, and upon that increase of various knowledge which has taken place in the world, it would be found that the series of numbers which I have described has still greater claim on our attention, from the manner in which its use tends to clear up many difficulties in the Apocalypse, than from the sin- gular numerical evidences which belong to it, when compared with the prophetic numbers of the Scripture. I have not, however, felt suffi- cient confidence in my own judgment to advance as an hypothesis what I have stated only as a subject for inquiry. If the attention of others more competent than I am to analyse this subject, should thus be directed to it, my purpose will be fulfilled. But if such an inquiry should be thought to trench too closely upon ground which ought ever to be inviolate, as seeking to pry into things " unseen 116 " as yet," let it be remembered that an unre- flecting and implicit faith is as fruitful of error as too bold a spirit of curiosity can be. I hum- bly trust, that in the preceding pages, I have neither sought to take away from the words of the book of life, nor to add unto them, as of my own mind ; and with a fervent prayer that the God who " giveth sound wisdom and under- " standing" will prosper such truths as may be herein contained, and render each error harm- less, I now conclude mv labour. THE END. GIF.PICR1& niVaNGTON, rRISTEHS, ST. John's squaab. Princeton Theological Seminary Ubraries 1 1012 01250 0833 Date Due