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tensian and the other fifteen documents of the margin,) with the set of sixteen manuscripts, used "superioribus diebus,' we must except at least the codex 6." There was then at least one of the set of sixteen manuscripts, qu'il ne produit pas,-one at least,-which was never cited in the margin. If the laughing critics then could make good these words, and shew that every one of the sixteen documents of Stephanus's margin gave readings different from his own, there was still this one at least which, by their own theory, might have given the readings in accordance with the text. Here then was fresh cause

for Crito's declining to say a word upon ẞ, and the reader will not wonder that the "glaring evidence" glaring evidence" passes equally without notice, though it occupies so much space in the Specimen. A vindicator, who intimated that Mr. Porson's letters shew "the most pure and inflexible love of truth," could not have been very well pleased with the observations (Spec. p. 21-26, and 39) on his usual consummate skill in coming to "all the MSS.," (i. e. "all the MSS." that the Professor had himself ascertained,) in the instance which he produces to prove what he had asserted after Morin, and what he himself had observed " Mr. Griesbach took for granted,—namely, that Stephanus," in his third edition, often varies from all his MSS., even by his own confession." But the man who makes the observations escapes with the simple notice from Crito, that his decisions are accompanied with the most unwarrantable reflections upon the living and the dead." FRANCIS HUYSHE

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THE PROPHECY OF ENOCH.

ALTHOUGH the complete and final accomplishment of Enoch's prophecy is yet in futurity, it received a partial and typical fulfilment at the flood, and is represented by St. Jude as bearing a similar application to his own times. We are, therefore, led to expect some analogy between the character and fate of the respective generations at the close of the antediluvian and Jewish ages. In fact, both sets of men were licentious infidels, and drew down upon themselves a direct judgment from the Almighty-a judgment, in mercy long foretold, and executed only against the continued impenitence of unbelief. It is my object to illustrate the earlier and more obscure of these events by means of the fuller information which we have of the second.

I begin with considering the prevalence of unbelief, and the judgment it drew on, in the last days of the Jewish age. The sin of that generation was not only (as is commonly supposed) the rejection of Jesus as the Messiah, but infidelity generally and gross licentiousness. "Shall not God avenge his own elect? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily; nevertheless, when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" (Luke, xviii. 7.) The destruction of Jerusalem is represented by our Lord as a judgment upon the unbelieving Jews, and their consequent loss of civil power as a great deliverance to their believing brethren. "When they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another, for verily I say unto you, Ye shall VOL. IV.-Oct. 183 3 B

not have gone over the cities of Israel till the Son of man be come." (Matt. x.) "But before all these things they shall lay their hands on you and persecute you. . . And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, for your redemption draweth nigh, &c." (Luke, xxi.) The prophetic intimations of the New Testament are so framed as not to receive their full completion in the direful close of the Jewish dispensation; yet there can be no doubt that its warnings and descriptions refer to the men of that generation, and that the strongest expressions in the epistles did personally concern those to whom they were directly addressed. Let us see what information they afford us concerning the infidelity and licentiousness of the last times of the Jewish age. St. John, writing at the close of that dispensation, A. D. 69, says :-" Little children, it is the last time; and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists, whereby we know that it is the last time." (1 John, ii. 18.) St. Jude, who wrote nearly at the same time, states the same fact: "There are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, how they told you there should be mockers in the last time who should walk after their own ungodly lusts." The references here made by John and Jude to previous apostolic notices concerning the unbelievers of the last time, are to be found in the epistles of Peter and Paul, who wrote somewhat earlier. "This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come; for men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, &c.: from such turn (thou) away." (2 Tim. iii.) The concluding admonition. plainly shews that the individual addressed was to be personally concerned with these lawless characters of the last days. "There shall be false teachers among you who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government: presumptuous are they, self willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities." (2 Pet. ii.) These passages from scripture are prophetic descriptions of the men whose character is thus summarily recorded in history "Whilst they trampled under foot every human law, they ridiculed religion, and scoffed at the oracles of the prophets as the fictions of impostors." (Josephus's Jewish War, vi. 6.) The men of that generation both heard these prophecies, and saw their primary fulfilment; but the men who shall live in the last days of another age, shall see a more full and terrible completion.

These remarks will serve to illustrate the last days of the antediluvian age, and to shew the character of that generation which brought on such a grievous judgment as the coming of the Son of man at the flood. I shall begin with the notices in the New Testament; and then point out how far these agree with, and throw light upon, the brief history of those times as recorded by Moses.

St. Peter distinctly characterizes the men of that age as unbelievers: "who formerly disbelieved when once the long suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing." And our Saviour marks it as a sensual age: "In the days that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark." It is from St. Jude, however, that we learn with the greatest clearness the nature of the reigning vices. He is illustrating the conduct of the infidels of his own day from similar characters before the flood, but his remarks reflect light on the antediluvian times. He lived to see the rise of" ungodly men, turning the grace of God into lasciviousness, and denying Jesus Christ, our only Master, God and Lord;" and he asserts that Enoch's prophecy concerning the Lord's coming in judgment on the unbelievers at the end of the antediluvian age, points out a sure destruction to the mockers whom he saw around him. "And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these sayings: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" that should come-o ipxóμevoç. (John, xi. 27.) We might fill up this bold outline of infidelity, drawn by Enoch, with minuter lineaments borrowed from Peter and Paul; but the prophecy itself points out with sufficient clearness the licentious practices and blasphemous scoffings of the infidels that were to appear in the last times of the antediluvian age, before the coming of the Lord in judgment at the flood. There did arise licentious unbelievers; and they no doubt answered one another in their scoffings. "Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation." The patriarchal, mosaic, and christian prophecies concerning the Lord's coming, do all refer, ultimately, to the same awful event; but they were immediately connected with the interests of the particular dispensation under which they were delivered. The patriarchs gave timely warning of the impending destruction at the end of the antediluvian age, and the apostles afforded sufficient intimation of the impending wrath in the last days of the Jewish age. "Behold the Lord cometh," says Enoch: "the Lord is at hand," says St. Paul, (Phil. iv. 5.): St. James, v. 8, repeats, "the coming of the Lord draweth nigh."

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It is only natural to suppose that Enoch's prophetic office was not completed in the delivery of a few sentences. There doubtless were other intimations from the Spirit; and among these might be placed, with some show of probability, the name which he gave to his son Methuselah, which signifies his death will send; at any rate, it is a remarkable coincidence that the flood immediately followed upon his decease. From some such intimation which determined the time, we may suppose that Lamech gave to his son the name of Noah, either in the hope that he might be the very seed of the woman, or as a sign expressive of his belief that the curse, which had been brought upon the ground through the serpent, should be taken off by the coming of

the promised deliverer in that generation. "He called his name Noah, saying, This same shall relieve us of our labour, and of the burthen of our hands from the ground, which the Lord hath cursed." But man must first be relieved of the labour and burthen of his soul through the true Noah, before he can be rendered fit for the new heavens and the new earth "wherein is the tree of life, and where there shall be no more curse." (Rev. xxii.)

"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are burthened,
And I will relieve you;

Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me,

For I am meek and lowly in heart,

And ye shall find relief unto your souls;

For my yoke is easy, and my burthen light."-Matt. xi. 28.

That generation of the former world, which was of such extraordinary wickedness as to bring on the destruction of their whole race, could not fail to hold a conspicuous place in the traditionary history of the replenished world. Accordingly, Moses speaks of them as well known characters in these terms:-"There were turbulent men* in the earth in those days; but also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and children were born unto them, these were the ancient lawless ones, those noted men. Every imagination of the thoughts of their heart was only evil continually, and the earth was filled with violence because of them.” (Gen. vi.) The author of Ecclesiasticus, who has many references to ancient traditions, intimates (xvi. 7.) that the flood was brought on by the licentiousness of unbelief. Infidelity entered into the world in the person of Cain. By refusing to offer up an expiatory sacrifice to the Lord, he avowed his disbelief in the atonement of a Redeemer. His principles extended so widely with his posterity, that in the seventh generation God saw good to raise up a conspicuous witness to the truth. In this time of wickedness, the translation of Enoch afforded new assurance to the faithful, and his prophecy spoke in tones of authority to call the infidel to repentance. Yet, for all this, they sinned more and more. There were licentious unbelievers in those days in the ninth generation these did so prevail, as universally to seduce the worshippers of God into family alliances, the offspring of which was a race that out-did all former generations in the licentious excesses of infidelity. But their punishment was commensurate with their guilt: "the flood came and took them all away.”

It is a remarkable phenomenon of the human mind, that corrupt as the heart of man naturally is, it becomes still more so under the per

* Some of our earlier versions with Luther call them "tyrants." The Hebrew verb signifies to fall, fall upon, fall away; so that the noun may mean either an assaulter or apostate. In the present passage it has both senses: they were licentious unbelievers, whose lawlessness sprang from infidelity. The notion of giants seems to have arisen from following the version of the LXX without attending to their peculiar use of the word yiyaç, which yet they have sufficiently explained in Gen. x. 8-" And Cush begat Nimrod: the same began to be a giant in the earth." Men of extraordinary stature are called iπερμýket-Num. xiii. 32.

version of religion. The worldly and ambitious men that rejected our Lord were of a most hardened character; but they were far exceeded by the lawless infidels that apostatized from the Christian faith in the closing day of the Jewish age. "Even now are there many antichrists, whereby we know that it is the last time; they went out from us, but they were not of us." (1 John, ii.) "There shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them. . . . If after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein and overcome, the latter end is worse than the beginning. (2 Pet. ii.) The unbelievers before the flood were altogether a lawless and sensual race; but it was not till "the sons of God went in unto the daughters of men," till the worshippers of God apostatized from the catholic faith in a Redeemer, that the iniquity of man came to the full, and called down the anger of the Almighty upon a cursed race.

The analogy which I have endeavoured to point out, between the last days of the antediluvian and Jewish ages, seems to be confirmed by these words of our Saviour according to their primary meaning:* "As the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." (Matt. xxiv. 37.) In their complete sense, indeed, the analogy will be more striking and their fulfilment more awful.

W. B. WINNING,

Keysoe Vicarage, Beds.

LETTERS ON THE CHURCH OF THE FATHERS.

NO. I.

MR. EDITOR,-No considerate person will deny that there is much in the spirit of the times, and in the actual changes which the British constitution has lately undergone, which makes it probable, or not improbable, that a material alteration will soon take place in the relations of the church towards the state, to which it has been hitherto united. I do not say it is out of the question that things may return to their former quiet and happy course, as in the good old time of king George III.; but the very chance that they will not, makes it a practical concern for each churchman to prepare himself for a change, and a practical question for the clergy, by what instruments the authority of religion is to be supported, when the protection and recommendation of the government are withdrawn. Truth indeed will always support itself in the world by its native vigour; it will never die while heaven and earth last, but be handed down from saint to saint until the end of all things. But this was the case before our Lord came, and is still the case in heathen countries. My question concerns the church, that peculiar institution which Christ set up as a visible home and memorial of truth; and which,

The meaning which the phrase has in Matt. x. " As ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come."