I incline rather to this second interpretation; but, as the construction will admit either, and as neither of them is unsuitable to the context and the occasion, I thought it it the safer method in a translator to give the expression in the same extent in which the evangelist has given it, and leave the choice free to his readers. It may be proper just to mention a third meaning which has been put upon the words, and of which, it must be owned, they are naturally susceptible : "Lovest thou me more than thou lovest these thy fellow-disciples?" This, in my judgment, is the least probable of them all. Our Lord was so far from ever showing a jealousy of this kind, lest any of his disciples should rival him in the affection of the rest, that it was his aim to excite them, in the warmest manner, to mutual love; urging, amongst other motives, that he will consider their love to one another as the surest evidence of their regard and affection to him, and requiring such manifestations of their love to their brethren, as he had given of his love to them, and as show it to be hardly possible that they could exceed this way.

16. “ Tend my sheep,” ποίμαινε τὰ πρόβατά μου. E. T. "Feed my sheep." This is the translation given also to the words Βόσκε τὰ πρόβατά μου in the next verse. But the precepts are not synonymous. The latter is properly, provide them in pasture: the former implies also, guide, watch, and defend them. As there is in the original some difference in every one of the three injunctions at this time laid on Peter, there ought to be a corresponding difference in the version. Yet none of our Eng. interpreters seem to have adverted to this. The Vul. must have read differently, as it has "Pasce agnos meos." But in this reading it has not the support of a single MS. and only the Sax. version.

22, 23. "If I will that he wait my return," lav aỷiòn đềàm μéveiv čas evropa, Vul. "Sic eum volo manere donec veniam. This version, which totally alters the sense, has no support from Gr. MSS. or fathers, or from any ancient translation but the Sax. The Cam. ver. 22. reads 'Fav autov Dédo ovræs μévei; but, as it retains ar, the addition of ourens makes no material change in the sense; whereas the Vul. has, in both verses, turned a mere supposition into an affirmation. Sone La. MSS. read, agreeably to the Cam. "Si sic eum volo manere ;" and some, agreeably to the common Gr." Si eum volo manere." The Jesuit Maldonat gives up the reading of the Vul. in this place entirely, and even expresses himself with an asperity which will be thought surprising, when it is considered that his argument here hurts not the Protestants, but his own friends and brethren alone. Speaking of the three La.freadings given above, he says, "Prima est illa maximè vulgaris, quæ in omnes fere Latinos pervasit codices, eosque incredibili scriptorum negligentia contaminavit, Sic eum volo manere donec veniam, quid ad te? nulla prorsus specie probabilitatis," &c. Where is now the

merit which this son of Loyola boasted (when commenting on a passage liable to the like objections) of resigning entirely his own judgment in deference to the authority of the church? Ch. 8: 1— 11. N. There, indeed, after candidly admitting the weight of the arguments on the opposite side, he replies in this manner: Sed hæc omnia minus habent ponderis quam una auctoritas ecclesiæ, quæ per concilium Tridentinum, non solum libros omnes, quos nunc habet in usu, sed singulas etiam ejus partes, tanquam canonicas approbavit." Had this good father forgotten that the reading "Sic eum volo manere," which he so disdainfully reprobates, has the sanction of the Council of Trent, for it had been the common reading of the Vul. long before, and was in all their approved editions at the time? Had he forgotten that it was first ratified by Pope Sixtus V. after the revisal appointed by him, and then by Pope Clement VIII. after a second revisal appointed by him? Not one passage in the Vul. can claim the authority of Popes and Councils, if this cannot.

25. "I imagine the world itself would not contain." I agree perfectly with those interpreters who think, that the hyperbole contained in this verse is much more tolerable than the torture to which some critics have put the words, in order to make them speak a different sense. For some apposite examples of such hyperboles, both in sacred authors and in profane, I refer the reader to Bishop Pearce. For a refutation of the opinion of Ham. who seems to think that the two last verses were not written by the evangelist but by the Asiatic bishops, and of the opinion of Gro. and L. Cl. who think that the whole last chapter is of another hand, I refer him to Wetstein.

INDEX OF TEXTS

IN THE

OTHER BOOKS OF SCRIPTURE, AND THE APOCRYPHAL
WRITINGS, OCCASIONALLY ILLUSTRATED.

In the References to the Preliminary Dissertations, D. means Dissertation, p. part, n. note. In the References to the Notes on the Gospels, the chapter and verse of the Gospel, and the number of the note, when there are more notes than one on the same verse, are marked in the same manner as in the Notes themselves. The Prefaces to the Gospels thus,-Pr. Mt. Pr. Mr. Pr. L. Pr. J.