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All the ancients note that this is only a prophecy; and

one very well becoming an Apostle.

Hebrews vii. 3.

Such an account as this, of Melchisedec being without father, or mother, cannot naturally be given of any man. It may mean that he was without father or mother of any priestly order. The next words likewise, which in English might have explained the former, require some explanation; namely, without descent; that is, without a register or catalogue of his descent: or, as it is in the Greek, without any genealogy or pedigree. The Jews, and other ancient nations, commonly called all persons, whose pedigrees were obscure or lost, fatherless and motherless. The same interpretation

may also be given of the following expressions, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life, that is, not recorded in Scripture: for nothing is there said of the beginning or end of his life.

CONJECTURE ON 2 TIMOTHY iv. 13.

THERE is no particular conjecture as to the peculiar meaning or force of the following passage of St. Paul in the Second Epistle to Timothy iv. 13, "The cloak that I left at Troas, bring with thee, and the books; but especially the parchments." I would hint, that this epistle was written from Rome, when Paul was brought before Nero the second time. In the 22d chapter of the Acts, Paul was tenacious of the privilege of Roman citizenship; and it proved of much advantage to him before the centurion. It may be, and it is, a matter

of mere conjecture, whether he might be required to prove himself a citizen of Rome when he was to make his defence. These parchments (μeμpava) might contain some documents, or be a deed, or diploma of some consequence to the matter in question. But as to the cloak, there is something more particular. The cloak in the original is, Peλovиs, or, Paiλcvys; which is, undoubtedly, a corruption for Qaivoλes, and it is so read in the Codex, M. S. Bibliotheca Casarea Viennensis. Pavones was Grecised from the Roman word Panula.

This is no more than was done frequently in other languages, and in other countries, particularly when the seat of empire was transferred from Rome to Byzantium, the lawyers of the imperial courts were obliged to Grecise many terms of law.

As the Penula was so specifically a Roman garment, and worn only by Romans, St. Paul might wish, as a light confirmation of his point, to shew what was his customary dress. It may be remarked that the Penula was a vestment which the Romans generally wore upon a journey. Juvenal observes in Sat. 5, Multo Stillaret Panula nimbo; and St. Paul says, that "he left it behind him at Troas."

This is only written as a mere literary remark, to hint that, in the minutest passages of the Scriptures there may be some meaning; and that nothing can be so contemptible as a foolish and profane ridicule on any passage in the sacred writings, founded on ignorance. The present remarks are intended as a matter of some little curiosity: and I look upon them in no other view. But I think there is no passage in the Hebrew or Greek

Scriptures which will not at least admit of such an illustration or explanation (I mean philologically or critically) as may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men.

ILLUSTRATIONS OF SCRIPTURES.

Psalm lviii. 4, 5.

Jeremiah viii. 17.

In the neighborhood of Madras there are serpent charmers: a set of strollers, who carry about with them a basket with these reptiles. After a kind of overture, the basket is opened, and the serpents slide out. As the artist plays upon a tambourin, a kind of tympanum, and accompanies it with his voice, the serpents raise themselves on their tails, and wave their heads to the tune; but upon the music ceasing, they return almost immediately to their native sullenness and malignity, when they are fenced into their prison, to prevent their darting at the company, as they leave them in full possession of their poison, which they sometimes prove, by suffering them to bite domestic animals. The species generally employed by these itinerant artists, is that called Hooded Serpents, the most venomous of the kind; and many of them are so gloomy, that it is a long time before the artist can prevail upon them to lift up their hoods to admit the sound of his music, or "hear the voice of the charmer." They, therefore, often cut the ligature of their hoods, which makes it fall below their This effect of the sounds of music upon animals, is confirmed by what we see of the effects of drums and trumpets upon horses.

ears.

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I am he that liveth and was dead; and,behold, I am alive for evermore, amen; and have the keys of hell and of death. THAT the word ads here signifies not merely hell, but the Invisible World, which includes both heaven and hell, is pretty generally known and admitted. A passage which illustrates this sense may not be unuseful. Diodorus Siculus, describing the burial of the Egyptians, says, "the multitude proclaim the praises of the deceased, who shall pass an eternal age with the pious in Hades, ως τον αιώνα διατρίβειν μελλοντος καθ ̓ ἁρο μετα των ευσεβων; which evidently proves the word here translated hell, to include the whole invisible state, where departed spirits dwell, with its two divisions, for the righteous as well as the wicked. This affords a more exalted view of the dominion of Christ; for as Mr. Howe finely observes, it is not an instance of the authority with which a great prince is invested that he acts as a jailor, and keeps the key of the prison. But here Christ proclaims his sovereign authority, as fixing the boundaries of our present life, and holding absolute dominion over our departed spirits in the unseen world.

IN Mat. ii. 14, Jesus says of John the Baptist, "If you will receive it, this is Elias, who was for to come:" and yet when the Pharisees asked John the Baptist, 'Art thou Elias,' he answered, "No." John answered them according to their own ideas; for he would not sanction their departure from revealed truth, and their adoption

of the heathen μετεμψύχωσις, or transmigration of souls from one body to another, by saying he was that prophet; or as they meant, Elias risen from the dead, or his soul animating another body. But Christ truly said this was Elias; who was to come; he that was intended by the promise. Behold, I send you Elijah the prophet: one in the spirit and power of Elijah.

ON THE GENEALOGY OF CHRIST.

To the Editor.

SIR,

An Infidel has repeatedly challenged me to reconcile the two accounts of St. Matthew and St. Luke, relative t● our Savior's pedigree.

J. M. J.

INFIDELS are fond of shooting their pointless arrows against the adamantine fabric of Christianity. But let them know that this noble edifice will stand when the present generation of its foes is mouldered in the dust, as it has outlived the envenomed attacks of their ancestors.

Little more need be said to such, than that they might easily be condemned out of their own mouths; as a thousand arcana of nature are incredible to the eye of the keenest philosopher; and yet difficulties in the way of arriving to a perfect knowledge does not shake the belief of the fundamentals of their theory. In like manner the Christian might ask, Are not difficulties to be met with, and chasms to be found, in the genealogical tables of the ancestors of the first families of the present nobility? But do these things induce a doubt of

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