made, be returned from Babylon, really eat and drink! How pitiful, for when it does not appear that he made || Daniel, to discover the priests coming any? or how could they be returned and devouring the provisions, by mabefore they were carried away, along king the king's servants strow ashes with himself? The author borrows on the floor, when the priests might a variety of expressions from Daniel; so easily perceive them, or the serand so must have lived after Baruch vants so readily inform concerning was dead. The epistle ascribed to them! How absurd, that the newly Jeremiah, is neither written in his conquered Babylonians should, by stile, nor in the stile of the scriptures; menaces, oblige Cyrus to deliver up and ridiculously turns seventy years his beloved Daniel to them, to be cast into seven generations. into the den of lions! How absurd, that Habakkuk should be then alive to bring him food! or, that Cyrus should be seven days before he went to the den, to see what was become of his favourite minion!

The Prayer ascribed to Manasseh, never appeared in the Hebrew language; and seems to be the product of some pharisaical spirit. The au

ham, Isaac, and Jacob, as without sin, and not called to repent.

The Song of the Three Children in the furnace, is partly a poor imitation of the 148th Psalm; and partly deprecatory, not suited to such a deliverance. The account of the flame streaming above the furnace forty and nine cubits;' and of the angels smiting the flame out of the oven, and making a moist whistling wind' in it, seems entirely fabulous and ro-thor speaks of just persons, as Abramantic; nor is it very consistent with the fire's loosing their bands. Nor has the story of Susanna the least ap- The books of the Maccabees are pearance of truth. That it was ori- an history of events relative to the ginally in Greek, is manifest from Jews under the government of the the allusion, in the punishment pro- priest Mattathias, and his descennounced on the elders, to the mastic dants; and are, especially the first and holm trees, under which, they book, considerably useful. It seems said, they found Susanna and the to have been originally written in the young man together. How absurd Hebrew or Chaldee: in this lanto affirm, that in the beginning of the guage Origen saw it: and from this captivity, Joachim the husband of language Jerome seems to have made Susanna was become considerably his translation. It could not be rich; that there were Jewish judges wrote by inspiration: the writer of of life and death in Chaldee; that ten observes, that there was no pros Daniel, who was brought up in the phet in his times, chap. iv. 46. and ix. court, had leisure, or, being so young, 27. and xiv. 41; and indeed he has was admitted to be a judge; that Su-blundered into several mistakes; as, sanna went into her garden to wash that Alexander the Great parted his at noon-day, and did it without search-kingdom among his honourable sering if any body was there; or that the vants while he was yet alive; that elders attempted to force her, when Antiochus the Great was taken alive they could not but every moment ex-by the Romans; that they gave India pect the return of her maids? and Media, parts of his kingdom, to Eumenes king of Pergamus; that the Roman senate consisted of 320 persons; that Alexander Balas was the son of Antiochus Epiphanes, &c. chap. i. 6. and viii. 6,-8.15, 16. and x. 1.

The story of Bel and the Dragon is still more romantic. How improbable, that Cyrus, a Persian, would worship a Babylonian idol; nay, an idol that was broken to pieces at the taking of the city! How absurd to imagine, that a man of his sense could The second book of Maccabees is believe an image of brass and clay did "much inferior to the first. It is an

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history of fifteen years; and an a- salem. He was a very eloquent man; bridgement of the work of one Jason of and had a great acquaintance with Cyrene. The author concludes it, beg- the scriptures. With distinguished ging excuse, if he had said any thing fervour and diligence, he taught the unbecoming the story and indeed things of the Lord Jesus, knowing he had reason to do so, considering only the baptism of John. Aquila what a number of false and wicked and Priscilla having heard him boldly things he retails: as, that Judas Mac- || preach in the synagogue, and shewcabeus was alive in the 188th year of ing that Jesus was the promised the Seleucidæ, when he died in the Messiah and Saviour, took him home 152d; that Antiochus Epiphanes was with them, and instructed him more killed at the temple of Nanea in Per-|| fully in the Christian faith. He desia, whereas he died on the frontiers parted thence, with letters of recomof Babylon, of a terrible disease; that|mendation to Achaia; where he was Nehemiah built the second temple and altar, whereas they were built sixty years before he came from Per- || sia; that Jeremiah hid the tabernacle, ark, and altar of incense, in a cave; that Persepolis was in being 100 years after Alexander had burnt it to ashes; that Judas did well in offering prayers and sacrifices, to make reconcilia- || tion for the dead; that Razis did well in murdering himself, to escape the fury of the Syrians, chap. i. and ii. and ix. 2, 26-28. and xii. 43-45. and xiv. 37. The third book of the Maccabees is an history of a persecution intended against the Jews in Egypt, but miraculously prevented. Some call Josephus' account of the martyrs, who suffered under Antiochus, the fourth; but that which Calmut calls so, to me appears nothing else than the Arabic history of the Jewish nation, which we have in the London Polyglot. It extends to about 160 years; begins at Seleucus' attempt to pillage the temple; and ends just before the birth of Jesus Christ.

very useful in strengthening the new converts, and demonstrating from scripture to the Jews, that Jesus of Nazareth was indeed the Messiah promised to their fathers. Here, as at Ephesus, he watered the churches which Paul had planted. His fine address, and obliging behaviour, had like to have occasioned a schism at Corinth; some pretending to be of Paul's party, others of Apollos', others of Cephas', and others, pretending yet higher, to be of Christ's. Vexed hereat, Apollos left Achaia; and along with Zenas the lawyer sailed for Crete. Thence he went to Ephesus; and was there when Paul wrote his first epistle to Corinth; whither he could hardly be prevailed on to return, Acts xviii. 24.-28. I Cor. i. 12. and iii. 4,—6. and xvi. 12. Tit. iii. 15.

APOSTLE, a messenger sent on a peculiar and important errand.* Jesus Christ is called the Apostle of our profession: God sent him to declare his will, and erect his church; and he is the author, matter, and end of

* Such as that of delivering the alms or charitable contributions of the churches to those for whom they were made, 2 Cor. || viii. 23. Philip. ii. 2. the word which our translators have, in these passages, rendered Messenger, is the same which, in other places, is rendered Apostle. The seventy disciples and the evangelists are called apostles in the writings of the an

APOLLOS, a Jew of Alexandria, who came to Ephesus just when Paul set off on his third journey to Jeru-cient fathers.

these divine truths, which we are required to believe and profess, Heb. iii. 1.

them the keys of the kingdom of heaven. When James and John marked their ambition for some high post in his government, the rest were highly offended, as yet they knew not the nature of his kingdom. Just before his death, Jesus informed them of the approaching destruction of the Jewish church and state; and of his own coming to judgment: he assured them, that, in a few days, one of them should betray him into the

Correspondent to the twelve patriarchs, or twelve tribes of Israel, our Saviour, in the second or third year of his public ministry, first appointed, and then sent forth, twelve of his followers, whom he named APOSTLES. These he sent out by twos; Simon Peter, and Andrew his brother: James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip and Bartholo-hands of his enemies, to be crucified. mew; Thomas and Matthew; James the son of Alpheus, and Jude his brother; Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot. Of these apostles, Matthew had been a publican; other four if not all the rest, Galilean fishers. The New Testament church not being founded till after our Saviour's resurrection, their first mision was but temporary, confined to the cities of Israel; and in nothing superior to that of the seventy disciples, afterward sent on the same errand. Their work was to preach, that the kingdom of heaven, or gospeldispensation, was at hand; and to confirm their doctrine, by a miraculous healing of diseases, and casting out of devils: they were to provide no subsistence for their journey, but to expect it from their hearers; nor were they to use any fawning courtesy to gain favour; but were to shake off the dust of their feet, as a testimony against the city or family which rejected them. In the execution of their mission, they had proper success. When Jesus travelled, they were his ordinary attendants; and when he multiplied the loaves, they, as his servants, distributed the bread to the multitude, Matth. x. Mark iii. and vi. 7-13. Luke vi. Matth. xiv.

It seems the most of them at first concurred with Judas, in taking offence at Mary's expensive anointing of their Master. With all of them, he celebrated his last passover: with all of them, except perhaps Judas, he observed his first sacred supper; and entertained them with a vast number of suitable exhortations, and consolatory promises, particularly of the Holy Ghost to be poured out upon them. They were so taken herewith, that whatever impertinent questions they had formerly asked, they now owned that he spoke plainly. When Jesus was apprehended, he desired his persecutors to forbear touching them; they, however, ungenerously forsook him, and fled his crucifixion threw them into prodigious perplexity, as they had all along dreamed of his erecting a temporal kingdom. Judas being dead, and Thomas absent, he on the evening after his resurrection, appeared to ten of them, amid their perplexity; he renewed their mission, and breathed on them, as a token of his sending the Holy Ghost, Luke xi. Matth. xvi. and xx. and xxiv. to xxvi. John xii-xviii. and xx.

After giving them repeated proofs of his resurrection, he, just before his ascension, gave them a formal com-, mission, to go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature ; and assured them of his presence and protection; and that he would confirm their doctrine by miraculous proofs: he bid them tarry at Jerusalem for the effusion of the Holy

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