NOTE 2.-Testimony of Menander to the character and acts of Shalmaneser, preserved in Josephus, and translated in this Lecture.

NOTE 3.-The following description of the temple of Belus is extracted from the writers of the Ancient Universal History, vol. I. book i. chap. 2, page 417. Dublin edit. 1745. It is necessary to mention the edition when a reference is made to the page, because there are several editions which differ materially in this respect.

"Herodotus tells us, it was a furlong in length, and as much in breadth; and Strabo determines the height to have been a furlong, that is, the eighth part of a mile, or six hundred and sixty feet, which is itself prodigious; for thereby it appears to have exceeded the greatest of the Egyptian pyramids in height, one hundred and seventy-nine feet, though it fell short of it at the base by thirty-three. It consisted of eight square towers one above another, gradually decreasing in breadth; which, with the winding of the stairs from the top to the bottom on the outside, gave it the resemblance of a pyramid, as Strabo calls it. This antique form, joined to the extraordinary height of the structure, easily induces us to believe it to be the same tower mentioned by Moses; Nebuchadnezzar finishing the design, which the sons of Noah were obliged, by the confusion of tongues, to leave unexecuted." And again they add in a note: “The words of Herodotus are: Εν μέσω δε του 138 πυργος στερεας οικοδορκηται, σταδια και το μήκος και το εύρος, και επί τέτω τω πυργω άλλος πυργος επιβέβηκε, και ετερος μαλα επί τέτω, μέχρις ου οκτω πυργων. “In the midst of the temple a solid tower is built, of a furlong in length and as much in breadth; and upon this tower another tower is erected, and another again upon that, and so on to the number of eight towers.' It is true, the word as which we here translate length, may also signify height: but some authors having thence supposed, as the construction seems to require, that the first tower was a furlong high, and concluding the other seven to be of equal height, have made the whole a mile high; to avoid which extravagant consequence, it seems more reasonable to

understand Herodotus as we have rendered the passage, unless the furlong be taken for the height of all the eight towers." And it appears to me that the construction of the passage will not allow this last conclusion: for whether the word μs be rendered height or length, it evidently refers to the first tower; and it is expressly said that "another was built upon this"—and so on. I conclude, therefore, that these words of Herodotus refer to its length, and its breadth, without adverting at all to its height, which Strabo says was also a furlong. According to this last mentioned author it was exactly a furlong every way.

NOTE 4-See page 313.

NOTE 5.-Seventy years had been predicted as the term of the captivity of Judah. Some have computed from the fourth year of Jehoiakim to the first issuing of Cyrus' decree. Others from the destruction of Jerusalem to the publication of Darius' decree, in the fourth year of his reign. The discussion of this point is immaterial: since either way seventy years were accomplished.

The writers of the Ancient Univ. Hist. date it from the first taking of the city in the reign of Jehoiakim, and they say, in a note, "This Usher proves to have happened in the ninth month, from the anniversary fast, which the Jews have kept ever since in memory of that calamity. This is the more worth observing, because the seventy years captivity foretold by Jeremiah, must be reckoned from this epocha."

NOTE 6. The following description of the Simoom is given in Bruce's Travels, vol. vi, p. 461, 462. Edinburgh 8vo. edit. of 1804. He says, "that an extreme redness in the air was a sure presage of the coming of the Simoom." And his conductor through the desert warned him and his servants "that upon the coming of the Simoom" they "should fall upon their faces, with their mouths upon the earth, so as not to partake of the outward air, as long as they could hold their breath." And he thus describes its fearful approach and effects. "At eleven o'clock, while we contemplated with great pleasure the rugged top of Chiggre, to which we were fast approaching, and where we were to solace ourselves with plenty of good water, Idris cried out with a loud voice, Fall upon your faces, for here is the

simoom! I saw from the south-east a haze come, in color like the purple part of the rainbow, but not so compressed or thick. It did not occupy twenty yards in breadth, and was about twelve feet high from the ground. It was a kind of blush upon the air, and it moved very rapidly, for I scarce could turn to fall upon the ground with my head to the northward, when I felt the heat of its current plainly upon my face. We all lay flat upon the ground, as if dead, till Idris told us it was blown over. The meteor, or purple haze, which I saw, was indeed passed, but the light air that still blew was of heat to threaten suffocation. For my part, I found distinctly in my breast that I had imbibed a part of it, nor was I free of an asthmatic sensation till I had been some months in Italy, at the baths of Poretta, near two years afterwards.”

NOTE 7.—We do not sufficiently consider under whose direction are the desolations of the earth, and by whose permission the hero conquers. Jeremiah awfully unveils the cause of Judah's and Israel's calamities, when he says, "The Lord was an enemy: he hath swallowed up Israel, he hath swallowed up all her palaces: he hath destroyed his strong holds, and hath increased in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation. And he hath violently taken away his tabernacle, as if it were of a garden, he hath destroyed his places of the assembly: the Lord hath caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and hath despised in the indignation of his anger the king and the priest." Lamentations ii, 5, 6.

And this reminds me of a most beautiful passage in Virgil, in which the poet represents the deities engaged in the subversion of Troy.

"Here, where you behold bulwarks cast down, and stones rent from stones, and waving smoke mingling with dust, Neptune shakes the walls, and the heaving foundations, with his great trident, and overthrows the whole city from its bases. There, Juno, the most inexorable, occupies the Scæan gates, and girded with a sword, calls the raging army of the allies from their ships. Then behold Tritonian Pallas sits upon the highest citadels, effulgent on a cloud, and with her terrible ægis. Jupiter himself supplies courage, and renewed forces, to the Grecians; himself stirs up the gods against the Trojan arms!"

LECTURE XII.

NOTE 1-see page 325.

NOTE 2. I have translated drag auTS Toy aslega •

THAVATONN

star, referring the

seen his star,

-We of the East have term East, not to the part of the heavens in which the star appeared, but to the country whence they came. I believe that I am not alone in this translation; and if I mistake not, this, or a very similar one, is the rendering of Dr. Cambell, in his new translation of the gospels. Another explanation is offered by Poole in his learned and laborious Synopis-which is, We have his star at its rising; and he adds, that the Greek astronomer use the term avaroJN to imply the rising of any heavenly body, and for its setting. Thus the passage may meanwe saw this star from its very first appearance, at the moment when it began to shine in the heavens; and its position appeared to us to mark its relation to Judea. And this learned writer, moreover, informs us, that the professors of astrology (and such perhaps were these Magi) were accustomed to assign certain spaces of the heavens, in their calculations, to certain "Ad exortum ejus, sive, correspondent regions of the earth. quem oriretur: Huc facit, 1 quod Græcis astronomis ortus stellarum dicitur arroja, et, exvroku (ut avaroku mais, ortus solis, Apoc. 7 2. et occasus earum, duri: 2 quod oriens, sicut et occidens, plur num. avarokas ét, advou, plerumque exprimuntur, Matt. 8, 11 et 24, 27, Luc. 13 29. Credibile est, apparuisse hanc stellam in ca cœli parte, quæ consensu astrologorum ad Judæam pertinuit, ut solent ab ejus artis professoribus terrarum regiones certis cœli spatiis ascribi: Quæ dico, non quod superstitiosis ariolationibus patrocinari cupiam, sed quod arbitrer Deum ita res disponere, ut ca, quæ, sive jure, sive injuria, magni apud homines fiunt, interdum trahat in veri testimonium.”

Pol Synop. Crit. Tom. IV in Matt. cap. ii, 2.

NOTE 3.-Testimonies of Pliny and of Chalcidius, relative to the appearance of this luminous body: The passages are thus extracted and quoted by the author whose remarks form the substance of the former note.

Huc et illud PLINII, (qui ex obscura fama auditum refert, qua de re scripsit, ipse ignorans) qui "apparuisse aliquando' scribit "Cometam candidum, argenteo crine ita refulgentem, ut

vix contueri licuerit, specieque humana Deieffigiem inse ostendentem."

Testimonium CHALCIDII PLATONICI (modo

y sit) apposi

tum est, "Sane notanda est," inquit," alia sanctior et venerabilior historia, quæ perhibet de ortu stellæ cujusdam, non morbos mortesque denunciantem, sed descensum Dei venerabilis ad humanæ conversationis, rerumque mortalium, gratiam; quam stellam cum nocturno itinere suspexissent Chaldæorum profecto sapientes viri, et consideratione rerum cœlestium satis exercitati, qusisse dicuntur recentis Dei ortum, repertaqee illa Majestate pueril, venerati esse, et vota Deo tanto convenientia nuncupasse."

Poli Synopsis Crit. Tom. IV. in Matt. cap. ii, 2. Josephus might well add, that he was a man "totally alienated from humanity"-and express his surprise that his thirst of blood should remain in those last moments, when most men are disposed to bury even the injuries which they have receiv ed in eternal oblivion! His family had the humanity to break their vow to him; and immediately upon his death set their illustrious prisoners at liberty.

NOTE 5-Testimony of Josephus to the life, the sufferings, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ: as also of the unshaken attachment of his followers to him.

Jos. de Antiq. Jud. Tom. II. lib. xviii, cap. 4, p. 798. Hudsoni edition.

Some have affirmed that this passage is interpolated: and it is always easy to make affirmations, and to raise objections. The following reasons have always satisfied my mind that it is genuine. 1. It accords well with its connexion, and forms a link with the other parts of the narrative. 2. It agrees in point of Lime with the facts narrated along with it. 3. It is such a testimony as might be expected from such a man as Josephus: neither enlarged upon with the partiality of friendship (for he was a Jew, and not a Christian) nor disfigured to blot the fidelity of the historian: but related with a conciseness which shews him unwilling to keep back any part of the fact, yet unable to account for the extraordinary circumstances attending it. 4. It would have been a marvellous thing indeed, if Josephus, who died within 93 years after Christ, and who professed to write