is almost as common as ἡ βασίλεια το Θεό. And though it may be affirmed that the regimen in the one expresses the proprietor of the kingdom, in the other the place; it is evident that this does not hold always. In parallel passages in the different Gospels, where the same facts are recorded, the former of these expressions is commonly used by Matthew, and the other as equivalent, by the other evangelists. Nay, the phrase ἡ βασίλεια των ερανων, is adopted, when it is manifest, that the place of dominion suggested is earth, not heaven; and that, therefore, the term can be understood only as a synonyma for Sɛ05. The prodigal says to his father, Father, I have sinned against Heaven and before thee; that is, against God and thee. Otherwise, to speak of sinning against an inanimate object, would be exceedingly unsuitable both to the Christian theology and to the Jewish. The baptism of John', says our Lord, whence was it; from Heaven, or of men? From Heaven, that is, from God. Divine authority is here opposed to human. This difference, however, in the sense of spavos, makes no difference to a translator, inasmuch as the vernacular term with us admits the same latitude with the Hebrew and the Greek.

§ 5. ΤΗΑΤ βασιλεια ought sometimes to be rendered reign, and not kingdom, I shall further evince when I illustrate the import of the words xnpvoow,

* Luke, xv. 18. 21.

7 Matth. xxi. 25.

Evayyελw, and some others. Isaiah, Daniel, Micah, and others of the Prophets, had encouraged the people to expect a time, when the Lord of hosts should reign in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, when the people of God should be redeemed from their enemies, and made joyful in the Messiah their King. It was this happy epoch that was generally understood to be denominated by the phrases βασιλεια το Θεον, and Baoiλeia tov spavov, the reign of God, and the reign of Heaven: the approach of which was first announced by the Baptist, afterwards by our Lord himself, and his Apostles. Bao2na is applicable in both acceptations, and it needs only to be observed that, when it refers to the time, it ought to be rendered reign, when to the place, kingdom. For this reason, when it is construed with the verb κηρύσσω, ευαγγε λίζω, καταγγελλω, or the noun ευαγγελιον, it ought invariably to be reign, as also when it is spoken of as come, coming, or approaching.

6. THE French have two words corresponding to ours, regne reign, and royaume kingdom. Their interpreters have often fallen into the same fault with ours, substituting the latter word for the former: yet, in no French translation that I have seen, is this done so uniformly as in ours. In the Lord's Prayer, for example, they all say, ton regne vienne, not ton royaume, thy reign come, not thy kingdom. On the other hand, when mention is made of entrance or admission into the Baoiλea, or exclusion from it, or where there is a manifest re

ference to the state of the blessed hereafter; in all these cases, and perhaps a few others, wherein the sense may easily be collected from the context, it ought to be rendered kingdom, and not reign.

7. THERE are a few passages, it must be acknowledged, in which neither of the English words can be considered as a translation of Bao2aa strictly proper. In some of the parables, it evidently means administration, or method of governing; and in one of them', the word denotes royalty, or royal authority, there being a manifest allusion to what had been done by Herod the Great, and his immediate successor, in recurring to the Roman senate in order to be invested with the title and dignity of King of Judea, then dependent upon Rome. But where there is a proper attention to the scope of the place, one will be at no loss to discover the import of the word.

Matth. xviii. 23.

9 Luke, xix. 12. 15.

PART II.

OF THE NAME Το Ευαγγέλιον.

I PROCEED to inquire into the meaning of the word το Ευαγγελιον. This term, agreeably to its etymology, from ev bene and ayyeλia nuncium, always in classical use, where it occurs but rarely, denotes either good news, or the reward given to the bearer of good news. Let us see what ought to be accounted the scriptural use of the term. Ευαγγελιον and Evayyɛλia occur six times in the Septuagint in the books of Samuel and Kings. I reckon them as one word, because they are of the same origin, are used indiscriminately, and always supply the place of the same Hebrew word .besharah. In five of these the meaning is good news; in the sixth, the word denotes the reward given for bringing good In like manner, the verb ευαγγελίζειν, or ευαγγελίζεσθαι, which occurs much oftener in the Septuagint than the noun, is always the version of the Hebrew verb bashar, læta annunciare, to tell good news. It ought to be remarked also, that ευαγγελίζω is the only word by which the Hebrew verb is rendered into Greek: nor do I know any word in the Greek language that is more strictly of one signification than this verb. In one instance

news.

the verbal mebasher, is indeed used for one who brings tidings, though not good 10; but in that place the Seventy have not employed the verb evayyeλ or any of its derivatives. One passage", wherein the Septuagint uses the verb ευαγγελιζομαι, has also been alleged as an exception from the common acceptation. But that this is improperly called an exception, must be manifest to every one who reflects that the total defeat of the Israelitish army, with the slaughter of the king of Israel and his sons, must have been the most joyful tidings that could have been related in Gath and Askelon, two Philistine cities. The word occurs several times in the Prophets, particularly in Isaiah, and is always rendered in the common version, either by the phrase to bring good tidings, or by some terms nearly equivalent. It is sometimes also so rendered in the New

Testament 12.

§ 2. Now, let it be observed, that when the word is introduced in the Gospels, it is generally ei-1 ther in a quotation from the Prophets, or in evident allusion to their words. Thus πτωχοι ευαγγελίζονται, which our translators render, To the poor the gospel is preached", the whole context shows to be in allusion to what is said by the Prophet Isaiah", in whom the corresponding phrase is rendered, preach

10 1 Sam. iv. 17.

11 2 Sam. i. 20.

12 Luke, i. 19. ii. 10. viii. 1. Acts, xiii. 32.

1 Thess. iii. 6.

Rom. x. 15.

13 Matth. xi. 5. Luke, vii. 22.

1 lxi. 1.