The ancient versions are divided. The vulgate reads with the printed text; Hæc est oculus eorum inunivers a terra. The LXX as decidedly accord with Archbishop Newcome; αυτη η αδικία αυτών εν παση τη γη, with which the Arabic coincides. Both the Archbishop and Dr. Blaney refer to the Syriac version, each claiming it as a witness on his own side: It is more certainly in opposition to the printed text. xx, the iniquities of the whole land. But since the author has not given a literal translation of the passage, it is very difficult to guess what the reading of his manuscript exactly was. He compounds the two speeches of the angel into one, and instead of describing the subject denoted by the ephah to be in all the land, he makes it to be inclosed within the ephah itself. "This is the measure which is going forth; and in it are the iniquities of all the land." He seems to have concluded aright, that since the ephah was a vessel of capacity, and is described as ready to go forth, it must be intended to convey something in it. But not perceiving the figurative sense of the word by, and finding the contents of the vessel afterwards described as "wickedness," he persuaded himself, that iniquity must be the thing intended here, and therefore being farther encouraged by the facility of the emendation, he altered by conjecture the lod into Vau, giving at the same time a correspondent turn to the whole passage. It is also possible, that not attending to the progress of the prophecy, he might confound this part of the vision with the fourth, and suppose the removal of the ephah to be merely a repetition of the removal of the iniquity in iii. 9. Having then ventured on so important an alteration in the form and sense of the word, he is not likely to have been very careful, whether he rendered it in the singular or plural number. Yet I conceive his rendering, "the iniquities of all the land," to be more favourable to the Archbishop's reading than to Dr. Blaney's, because it is plain that he has expressed, what he supposed to be the antecedent, instead of the possessive pronoun, meaning by "the land," the inhabitants of the land. Upon the whole there is good reason to think, that the Syriac translator's manuscript agreed with our printed Hebrew text, and that he rashly took upon himself the office of conjectural critic.

Jonathan, the Chaldee paraphrast, at the first view, may be cited as a witness, either for the printed text, or for the new readings; but upon consideration his evidence will be

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found to incline strongly in favour of the former. His track is not difficult to be descried. He did not distinguish this part of the vision from the preceding one, which he has connected with it; and like the Syriac translator, he did not apprehend the signification of the figure here used. So venturing upon the same obvious emendation, he has interpreted the ephah, as if it were the emblem of unjust and knavish dealing, and has paraphrased the passage thus; "These are the people, who have been receiving and giving by a measure of deceit," or a false measure. But then he immediately adds; "Behold they are disclosed manifest to all the inhabitants of the land." These last words cannot arise in the way of interpretation, or paraphrase, out of the readings of Archbishop Newcome and Dr. Blaney, with which they have nothing in common. But if we consider, that he probably found by in his manuscript, and suppose that his conscience would not permit him to pass it by without some notice, it is easy to discern, that they are a paraphrase (an awkward one it must be allowed, yet the best he could give) of a word, the meaning of which he did not catch. "Their eye," the eye of all the inhabitants of the land, shall manifestly behold the gross iniquity of the fraudulent dealers: which is the same thing as saying, that it shall be manifestly disclosed to them. Thus it appears, that the Targum has preserved no very obscure traces of the reading of the present Hebrew text, which receives therefrom a strong confirmation. It is likely, that the author was the more induced to find some signification for it, as he could not fail to perceive, that his own interpretation of the amended one presented nothing better, than a feeble repetition of the curse denounced in the sixth part of the vision against theft, which plainly includes all forms and degrees. of injustice and dishonesty.

Dr. Blaney endeavours to fortify his reading by an objection, which applies equally to Archbishop Newcome's and to the printed text, viz. that it will be difficult to find a proper noun, to which the plural affix may be referred. But this difficulty could not have struck the Doctor himself with any great force, when he made his translation, or he had forgotten his translation, when he wrote his note; for in his English text we find, as I have above noticed, the plural affix inserted, "their iniquities," which agrees, with no reading whatever.

If indeed the reading of the Hebrew text had involved some contradiction, or some insuperable difficulty as to sense and grammar, it might perhaps have been allowable to propose in the margin or in a note, one of the new readings on the feeble authority, by which they are sustained. But neither contradiction nor grammatical inaccuracy can be pleaded against it; and it is shewn, I trust, in the commentary, that very good sense in itself and altogether congruous with this part of the vision may be made of it. If that sense be somewhat subtle and recondite, it is no objection to the reading; for it is a good canon of criticism, that of two readings supported by nearly equal authority, that, which is the more refined and difficult, is generally to be preferred, because copyists and translators are more likely to alter that into the easy and obvious, than vice versa. This rule is strictly applicable to the readings before us, and may be successfully pleaded in confirmation of the authority already so greatly preponderant in favour of the received text.

PART VIII.

CAP. VI. 1. _8.

In the second part of the vision, under the symbol of the four horns, the fortunes of the four great empires of the earth were sketched, with a rapid, but faithful pencil. They were doomed to fall in succession, the one before the other, and the last before the spiritual kingdom of the people of God. In the third part, the conquest of the Roman empire was predicted and the triumph of the church proclaimed. In the fourth, the principle, on which the whole procedure of God towards his people took place, was laid down and explained with sufficient distinctness; and in the fifth, the constitution of the divine kingdom on earth, was exhibited in the fulness of beauty and glory, by a set of striking and most appropriate symbols. A state of things indeed strictly in conformity to that constitution, can hardly, as it should seem, subsist on earth,

while the sceptre of dominion shall be swayed by mortal hands. But all the weakness of a fallen nature and all the blindness or perverseness, incident to human governors, afford no excuse, and, one can hardly believe, are sufficient to account, for the predictions delivered in the following scenes. The Roman empire having been subjected to the church of Christ, and being in point of fact nearly conterminous with it, the two are in the prophecy identified; and the melancholy character, which is given of the people of the earth, in the sixth and seventh parts, belongs indiscriminately to both. Such then being the true character of the Roman empire and catholic church, its profession of christianity must be considered as very equivocal and, in a great measure, nominal; and its system of worship, instead of being expressive of heartfelt submission and loyalty to its heavenly King, became rather an act of revolt and rebellion against him; while the severe and sanguinary measures, whereby it supported its apostacy against the more faithful and zealous christians, were in reality a persecuting war carried on by it against the true church of Christ. Hence we cannot be surprised, that the relapsed Roman empire, though in a christian form, should be considered, as the last of the four horns revived, and should be