martyrs being mingled with the bones of camels and asses before they were thrown away, so that it was no easy matter to distinguish them, in order to pay them the last offices of respect and affection. And thus by every insult that could be offered to the lifeless bodies of the departed saints, did the hard-hearted unbelievers try to vex and terrify the living. And then they vainly boasted of the fact of their being allowed to do so, as a proof that the Christian's God was helpless, and his religion untrue."

"During a time of great suffering in Egypt, numbers of the Christians, to avoid the danger, fled into the mountains, where many perished through want, or cold, or disease; by the hands of robbers, or by the attacks of wild beasts; while some were spared to return again in safety to their homes, when the storm that had threatened them had passed over. Among those that never returned was a very aged bishop of one of the cities of Egypt. He had fled along with his wife into some mountain in Arabia, but although great search was made, no traces of them could be discovered,-not even their bones. Whether they had been torn in pieces by savage animals, or whether they had been seized and made slaves, (as many were,) by the scarcely less savage inhabitants, was unknown:-they had disappeared from the eyes of their brethren! And, it may be observed, a martyrdom like this is quite as precious in the sight of God, as one that may seem more glorious and more triumphant to man. We have every reason to believe that the hunger and thirst, the cold and misery, the fear and danger, the pain and horror, felt by these poor wanderers in the midst of the silent desert, and in the bosom of the rugged mountain, were seen in secret, and will one day be rewarded openly;—it may be, in many cases, even in a yet higher degree than those sufferings, which have already in some measure had their reward in the praise and admiration of mankind.

"Besides these, we must not overlook another large class of sufferers for righteousness' sake. Who but the Great Judge of all men can at all reckon up the trials, the heart-breaking, never-ending trials, which during the first three hundred years of Christianity, the wife, or the child, the husband, the parent, or the domestic servant, who believed in Christ, must have endured, unknown to the world, from the unbelief and oppression of those, who were of their own household, and perhaps of their own flesh and blood."

"You may pluck the heart out of my body, but you cannot pluck the truth out of my heart,' was the saying of one of those that suffered for Christ's truth. Such a saying bespeaks the firmest confidence in the strength of Christianity, and in the impossibility of that religion being rooted up. Time has shown that this confidence was not misplaced. The life-blood of thousands of faithful witnesses has been spilled, but the truth has not yet been plucked out of the heart of that Church of which Christ is the head, of that body of which they were members. And now the haters of truth are no longer able to attack it with force. They may, and do, use their tongues and their pens, but they cannot lift up their hands against its followers. Christ has triumphed over the princes and powers of the world; He did so before He would admit them to serve Him. He first,' says Bishop Taylor, 'felt their malice before He would make use of their defence, to show that it was not his necessity that required it, but his grace that admitted kings and queens to be nurses of the Church.'"

The primitive Christians believed that the martyrs enjoyed very singular privileges; that upon their death they were immediately admitted to the beatific vision, and that God would grant to their prayers the hastening

of his kingdom, and shortening the times of persecution. Perhaps this consideration might excite many to court martyrdom, as we believe many did. It must be recollected, however, that martyrdom in itself is no proof of the goodness of our cause, only that we ourselves are persuaded that it is so. Yet we may consider the number and fortitude of those who, in the first ages, suffered for Christianity, as a collateral proof at least of its truth and excellence; for the thing for which they suffered was not a point of speculation, but a plain matter of fact in which (had it been false) they could not have been mistaken.

So high was the veneration entertained in the early Church for those who had sealed their faith with their blood, that the Jews and heathen affected to believe that Divine worship was paid to them. At the martyrdom of Polycarp, the Jews desired the heathen judge not to suffer the Christians to carry off his body, lest they should leave their crucified Master, and worship him in his stead. To which his flock answered, "We can neither forsake Christ, nor worship any other; for we worship Him as the Son of God; but love the martyrs as the disciples and followers of the Lord, for the great affection they have shown to their King and Master."

A similar answer was given at the martyrdom of Fructuosus, in Spain; for when the judge asked Eulogius, his deacon, whether he would not worship Fructuosus, as thinking, that though he refused to worship the heathen idols, he might yet be inclined to worship a Christian martyr, Eulogius replied, "I do not worship Fructuosus, but Him whom Fructuosus worships."

The earlier writers of the Church speak in similar terms, but in Origen and others of his time we see, in their undue veneration for martyrs, and in their extravagant estimate of the value of the "baptism of blood," an approach to some of the most glaring corruptions of the Romish church. Clement of Alexandria says, "We call martyrdom a perfection or consummation; but this not on account of the man's having attained the end of life, but because he has performed a work of perfect love." He, however, condemns the practice of rushing eagerly or unnecessarily upon martyrdom, as a species of self destruction. "The blood of the Christians," says Tertullian, "is the seed of the Church. You condemn us, but God acquits us." But he makes a sad mistake here, when he implies that, for the shedding of his blood, a martyr receives at the hand of God forgiveness of all his sins. sins. Tertullian speaks in high terms of the baptism of blood (martyrdom) as a substitute for that by water. Origen also highly extols the value of the baptism of blood, as a means of obtaining forgiveness of sins. "For," adds he, "as those who stood at the altar, according to the law of Moses, appear to have obtained remission of sins by their ministry through the blood of bullocks and goats, so the souls of those who have suffered death for the sake of Jesus, do not stand in vain at the altar of heaven, but by their ministry they obtain the forgiveness of sins for those who pray. We know that, as the high-priest, Jesus Christ, offered up Himself as a sacrifice, so also the priests, who are under Him, offer up themselves in sacrifice; and hence they were seen at the altar as at their proper place. The steadfast confessor, or the perfect martyr, is such an unblemished priest as were the Jewish priests of old, and he offers an unblemished sacrifice." "Perhaps," he says in another place, "as we have been purchased by the precious blood of Christ, some things are purchased for us by the precious blood of the martyrs." It is hardly necessary to expose or condemn this piece of false divinity; we know the use which was afterwards made of such hints to the great injury of Christian faith and practice.

MARTYR

Mary till the marriage at Cana, in Galilee, at which she was present with her son Jesus. She was at Jerusalem at the last passover Our Saviour celebrated there; witnessed all that was transacted; followed him to Calvary; and stood at the foot of his cross with an admirable con

"It was a noble wish," says Mr. Pridden, "that was uttered by a female martyr, when she beheld some of her fellow-sufferers being stoned to death, 'That with you I may live in heaven, with you may I perish on earth!' But without perishing as they did, we may ourselves hope to be even as they are. There are other trials besides the fiery trials of martyrdom for the Christian to endure and conquer. There are other ways to heaven beside that which is sprinkled with our own blood. Nay, there are cases in which a man may give his body to be burnt, and it shall profit him nothing. Our duty is to endeavour to go through our trials as the first believers went through their trials; and then, though our paths be different, we shall meet in the end. And, while yet on the way, we may be reminded of the vast worth of that object after which we seek, by learning what a price of sufferings and sorrows they cheerfully paid in order to secure it. 'That death which is but the close of a good life is not to be thought evil. For it is what follows death that alone can render it evil. Wherefore, for such as must necessarily die, it matters not so much by what that event is brought to pass, as whither through death they may be compelled to go. And accordingly the Christian knows that the departure of a poor religious man, surrounded by the dogs licking up his blood, is far better than that of the rich ungodly man clothed in purple and fine linen. For, after all, what harm do these horrible kinds of deaths bring to such as have led a good life?""

I. MARY, Mapia, Mapiaμ, from Miriam, the virgin mother of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, is called by the Jews the daughter of Eli; but by the early Christian writers, the daughter of Joakim and Anna; Joakim and Eliakim, however, are sometimes interchanged, (2Chron. 36. 4,) and Eli, or Heli, is therefore the abridgement of Eliakim. (Luke 3. 23.) She was of the royal race of David, as was also Joseph her husband; and she was also cousin to Elizabeth, the wife of Zacharias the priest. (Luke 1. 5,36.) Mary being espoused to Joseph, the angel Gabriel appeared to her, to announce that she should be, by a miracle of Divine power, the mother of the Messiah. (Luke 1. 26,27, &c.) To confirm this message, and to show that nothing is impossible to God, he added that her cousin Elizabeth, who was old, and had been hitherto barren, was then in the sixth month of her pregnancy. Mary, thus convinced, answered, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word." (Luke 1. 38.)

The subsequent scenes connected with the birth and the presentation of Christ in the Temple, the flight into Egypt, and other events in the infancy of Our Lord, are plainly related in the Gospels. "His mother," it is said, —and it marks her character of quiet thoughtfulness, profound piety, and deep maternal love,-"laid up all these things in her heart." (Luke 2. 51, &c.)

The Gospel mentions nothing more of the Virgin

pierced through her own heart. Jesus, seeing his mother and the beloved disciple near, he said to his mother, "Woman, behold thy son; and to the disciple, Behold thy mother. And from that hour the disciple took her home to his own house." No further particulars of this favoured woman are mentioned, except that she was a witness of Christ's resurrection. A veil is drawn over

her character and history; as though with the design to reprove that idolatry of which she was made the subject when Christianity became corrupted and paganized.

II. MARY was the name of the mother of the Evangelist Mark, and at her house the Christians in Jerusalem were wont to convene. The faithful were assembled in this house, and were praying there, when St. Peter, delivered by the ministry of an angel, knocked at the door. (Acts 12. 12.)

III. MARY, the mother of James the Less, and of Joses, was sister to the mother of Jesus, and was the wife of Alpheus, or Cleophas. (Matt. 27. 56,61; 28.1; Mark 15. 40,47; 16. 1; John 19. 45.) Cleophas and Alpheus are the same persons; as James, son of Mary, wife of Cleophas, is the same as James, son of Alpheus. She was an early believer in Jesus Christ, and attended him on his journeys to minister to him. She was present at the last passover, and at the death of Our Saviour she followed him to Calvary; and during his passion she was with the mother of Jesus at the foot of the cross. She was also present at his burial; and on the Frid y before, had, with others, prepared the perfumes to embalm him. (Luke 23. 59.) But going to his tomb very early in the morning, with other women, they then learnt from the mouth of an angel that their Lord was risen; of which they carried the news to the Apostles. (Luke 24. 1,5.) Jesus appeared to them by the way; and they embraced his feet, worshipping him.

IV. MARY, the sister of Lazarus, lived with her brother and her sister Martha, at Bethany; and Jesus Christ, having a particular affection for this family, often retired to their house with his disciples. Six days before the passover, after having raised Lazarus from the dead, he came to Bethany with his disciples, and was invited to sup with Simon the leper. (John 12. 1,2.) Mary, grateful for the recovery of so dear a brother, expressed her feelings in a costly manner, at which Judas Iscariot murmured; but Jesus justified Mary in what she had done, saying that by this solemn unction she had anticipated his embalmment, and in a manner had declared his death and burial, which were at hand. From this period the Scriptures make no mention of either Martha or Mary.

V. MARY MAGDALENE was so called, probably, from Magdala, a town of Galilee, of which she was a native, or where she had resided during the early part of her life. Out of her, St. Luke tells us, Jesus had cast seven devils, by whose malignant power she had been afflicted. (Luke 8. 2.) Some have erroneously imagined her to be Mary, the sister of Lazarus. There is no doubt bat that Mary Magdalene, both in character and circumstances, was a woman of good reputation and standing in society. She is mentioned by the Evangelist as being one of those women that followed Our Saviour to minister to him according to the custom of the Jews. She attended him in the last journey he made from Galilee to Jerusalem, and was at the foot of the cross with the Holy Virgin, (John 19. 25,) after which she returned tɔ

Jerusalem to buy and prepare with others certain perfumes, that she might embalm him after the Sabbath was over, which was then about to begin. All the Sabbath day she remained in the city; and the next day, early in the morning, went to the sepulchre along with Mary, the mother of James and Salome. (Mark 16. 1,2; Luke 24. 1,2.) For other particulars respecting her see also Matthew 28. 1-5; John 20. 11-18.

VI. MARY is the name of an unknown disciple resident at Rome, to whom St. Paul sent his salutation, with this eulogy: "Greet Mary, who bestowed much labour on us," (Rom. 16. 6,) or "on you," according to the Alexandrian and other manuscripts, and the Syriac, Ethiopic, Coptic, and Arabic versions. It is, therefore, uncertain whether the Apostle here speaks of services actually rendered to himself, or to the believers at Rome.

MASCHIL, is a title or inscription at the head of thirteen psalms, which has been very variously interpreted. Thus, Psalm 32 is inscribed, "A Psalm of David, Maschil;" and Psalm 42, "To the chief musician, Maschil, for the sons of Korah." The root sachal, may be understood to make wise, to instruct. Some of the Rabbins suppose that in repeating the psalms which have this inscription, it was usual to add an interpretation or explication to them; Rosenmüller adopts this opinion, and thinks the word might be rendered "a song of instruction." From the Arabic root, shakal, to intertwine, Michaëlis thinks it was a kind of poem of a restricted kind, or of a peculiar measure. Others, on the contrary, think it shows the clearness and perspicuity of such psalms, and that they needed no particular explication. The most probable opinion is, that it means an instructive poem or song.

MASON, 8hharashiy aben, a worker in stone, a stone-cutter. (2Sam. 5. 11.) From this passage, which states that "Hiram, king of Tyre, sent messengers to David, and cedar trees, and carpenters, and masons, and they built David an house," we may infer that the Hebrews were not very skilful in architecture, though they had long sojourned in the country where that art attained a high degree of perfection at a very early period. The ruins of immense temples and palaces at the present day fill the traveller in Egypt with wonder and astonishment. The sculptures on the granite, basalt, and hard limestone, of which the Egyptians made so free a use in their constructions, still remain undefaced, and they seem to have undergone no change in the long period since many of them were sculptured; so that fragments of temples which were levelled to the ground by Cambyses five hundred years before the Christian æra have not lost the polish they possessed when they first issued from the artist's hands. The obelisk that is still erect among the ruins of Alexandria, retains much of the freshness, sharpness, and high polish of its first execution on its north and east faces; but the minute particles of sand with which the air is charged in passing over the desert, have entirely defaced its south and west sides by beating against it during the sixteen hundred years in which it has stood in its present position; for probably about that time it was removed to Alexandria from some other city, where it had been originally erected. On first surveying the immense caverntemple at Ipsambul in Nubia, the spectator might well imagine that the artists were still at work in it. He conceives it to be impossible that the white of the walls can, at any time, have been purer or more perfect, the outlines of the figures sharper, or the colours more brilliant, than now; and this impression is strengthened

when he comes to that part of it where the tracings and first outlines show that this great work was never finished. But the black dust that, to the depth of many inches, covers the rocky floor on which he treads, and into which the doors, the door-posts, and internal fittings of the temple have long since corroded and mouldered, soon convinces him of his mistake, by showing him demonstrably that the hands by which these wonders were accomplished have been for ages motionless in the grave.

The impression upon the mind of the spectator when he first enters one of the vast halls which still remain in the interior of the palaces at Thebes, is described to be absolutely overwhelming. Some of these halls are six hundred feet both in length and breadth, and are crowded throughout their entire area with massive columns twelve feet in diameter, and sixty-six feet high. The walls, pillars, and gateways, are all covered with colossal figures in relief of gods and kings, and with the representation of long triumphal and religious processions; these designs are also painted with the most vivid colours, which are applied everywhere with very skilful attention to general harmony of effect. It may readily colours, which are applied everywhere with attention to general harmony of effect. It may readily be imagined that the sensations excited by the contemplation of a scene so wonderful and so strange, are as

difficult for one who has seen it to describe, as for one who has not seen it to conceive.

The monumental portraitures of the various processes of the building art are very numerous. Masons, carpenters, blacksmiths, brickmakers, &c., may be seen hard at work, and appear to be depicted with minute fidelity, and some of these explain to us a curious circumstance mentioned by the sacred historian in the account of the erection of Solomon's Temple: "And the house when it was in building, was built of stone made ready before it was brought thither; so that there was neither hammer nor axe, nor any tool of iron, heard in the house while it was in building." (1 Kings 6.7.) This previous squaring and preparation of the stones is frequently delineated; they are accurately measured under the superintendence of a principal architect, the shape marked on the rough block with a dark line, so as to determine the course of the stone-cutter accurately, and a mark, or number, is fixed to the finished stone, so as to point out its place in the building.

Masons' and carpenters' tools have frequently been found in the tombs, and some of them are to be seen in the Egyptian room of the British Museum. Most of the blades have been attached by linen bandages and an adhesive composition. On the blades of the larger, and handles of the smaller tools, is generally inscribed a line of hieroglyphics relative to "the gracious god, the sun, the establisher of the world, the prænomen of Thothmes III., or Moris, beloved of Amoun." See SCULPTOR; STATUE.

MASORA. On the dispersion of the Jews into various countries of the Roman empire after the destruction of Jerusalem, some of those who were settled in the East applied themselves to the cultivation of literature, and opened schools in which they taught the Scriptures. The most distinguished of these acade mies was that established at Tiberias in Palestine, which Jerome mentions as existing in the early part of the fifth century. The doctors of this school, it is said, (though the fact is disputed by some writers, who attribute the work to a long succession of learned men, commencing in the time of Ezra,) agreed to revise the sacred text, and issue an accurate edition of it; for which purpose they collected all the scattered critical and grammatical observations they could obtain, which appeared to them likely to contribute towards fixing both the reading and

interpretation of Scripture, into one book, which they called Masorah, from DN asor, to bind, and from this circumstance they have themselves received the name of Masorites. Much of their labour was undoubtedly mere learned trifling; but it must also be confessed that they rendered some service to the cause of sacred literature, for they were the first who distinguished the books and sections of books into verses, thus affording great facility of reference; they also, to prevent interpolation or omission, marked the number of all the verses of each book and section, and placed the amount at the end of each in numeral letters, or in some symbolical word formed out of them; but here their useful labours end. After marking the middle verse of each book, they likewise noted the verses where something was supposed to be forgotten; the words which they believed to be changed, (see Keri and Ketib;) the letters which they deemed to be superfluous; the repetitions of the same verses; the different readings of the words which are redundant or defective; the number of times that the same word is found at the beginning, middle, or end of a verse; the different significations of the same word; the agreement or conjunction of one word with another; what letters are pronounced, and what are inverted, together with such as hang perpendicularly, and they took the number of each, for the Jews cherish the sacred books with such reverence that they make a scruple of changing the situation of a letter which is evidently misplaced, supposing that some mystery has occasioned the alteration. They also reckoned which is the middle letter of the Pentateuch, which is the middle clause of each book, and how many times each letter of the alphabet occurs in all the Hebrew Scriptures. The following table from Bishop Walton affords an illustration of their laborious minuteness in these researches.

1 Vau Zain

76,922

Pe

22,867

Tsaddik

23,447

Koph

Teth › Yod

11,052

Resh

"

Hheth ה

22,725 21,882 22,972 22,147 32,148 Caph 59,343 All these various matters, which are called by the Jews the Fence or Hedge of the Law, were at first written in separate rolls, but they are now usually placed in the margin, or at the top and bottom of the page in printed copies. In order, however, to bring them within the margin, it became necessary, when the plan was first adopted, to abridge the work, which abridgment was called the little Masora, or Masora parva, but this being found too short, a more copious abridgment was inserted, which was distinguished by the appellation of the great Masora, or Masora magna; and that nothing might be lost, the omitted parts were added at the end of the text, and were called the final Masora, or Masora finalis. These Masoretic notes, if not useful are often ornamental appendages to the rolls of the Hebrew Scriptures, as some transcribers, with a design to decorate their manuscripts, have contrived to form the marginal lines of the Masora into all sorts of fanciful devices; such as triangles, circles, knots of various kinds, birds, beasts, &c. A copy of the Law, of this kind, was presented by the Emperor Maximilian I. to the celebrated Hebraist Reuchlin. It had originally been written for Rabbi Aben Ezra in the twelfth century; the Masora was in extremely small characters, arranged not lineally, but in the form of certain animals; it is said to be now in the grand-ducal library at Baden.

839

The age when the Masorites lived has, as we have said, been much disputed. According to Elias Levita, they were Jews of the school of Tiberias, about A.D. 500; Archbishop Usher places them before the time of Jerome; Cappel, at the end of the fifth century; Bishop Marsh is of opinion that they cannot be dated higher than the fourth or fifth century. Aben Ezra makes them the authors of the points and accents in the Hebrew text, as we now find it, and which serve for vowels; and Basnage says they were not a society, but a succession of men; and that the Masora was the work of many grammarians, who, without associating or communicating their notions, composed this collection of criticisms on the Hebrew text. Bishop Walton adopts the same opinion, which has many strong probabilities in its favour, and says, "They lived at different periods from the time of Ezra to about the year of Christ 1030, when the two famous Rabbins, Ben Asher and Ben Naphtali, flourished; since whose time little more has been done than to copy after them without making any more corrections or Masoretical criticisms. These two Rabbins were chief teachers or rectors of the great schools of the Jews at Babylon and in Palestine. Each of them, we are told, laboured to produce a correct copy of the Scriptures; and their respective followers corrected theirs by that of their master; the Eastern, or Babylonian Jews, adhering to the copy of Ben Naphtali: the Western Jews, or those inhabiting Palestine, following that of Ben Asher. Maimonides, who wrote about the middle of the twelfth century, says, 'The copy whereon we depend is the well-known copy in Egypt, which contains the twenty-four books, and which was many years at Jerusalem for the purpose of correcting copies from it, and upon it all of them depend; for Ben Asher revised it, and minutely corrected it, revising it many times. over.' Another copy, in high estimation among the modern Jews, is said to have been corrected by Rabbi Hillel, and for several centuries to have been kept at Toledo in Spain. Elias Levita also mentions two other celebrated copies, one brought from Jericho, and the Arabian, or one preserved at Sinai."

As to the value of the Masoretic system of notation, equal difference of opinion prevails: some writers have highly commended the undertaking, and have considered the work of the Masorites as a monument of stupendous labour, and an admirable invention for delivering the sacred text from a multitude of equivocations and perplexities to which it was liable, and for putting a stop to the unbounded licentiousness of transcribers and critics, who often made alterations in the text on their own private authority. Others, on the contrary, have altogether censured the design, suspecting that the Masorites corrupted the purity of the text by substituting for the ancient and true reading of their forefathers, another reading more favourable to their prejudices, and more opposed to Christianity, whose testimonies and proofs they were desirous of weakening as much as possible. Without adopting either of these extremes, Bishop Marsh observes that "the text itself, as regulated by the learned Jews of Tiberias, was probably the result of a collation of manuscripts. But as those Hebrew critics were cautious of introducing too many corrections into the text, they noted in the margins of their manuscripts, or in their critical collections, such various readings, derived from other manuscripts, either by themselves or by their predecessors, as appeared to be worthy of attention. This is the real origin of those marginal or Masoretic readings which we find in many editions of the Hebrew Bible. But the propensity of the later Jews to seek mystical meanings in the plainest facts, gradually induced the belief that both textual and marginal read

ings proceeded from the sacred writers themselves; and that the latter were transmitted to posterity by oral tradition, as conveying some mysterious application of the written words. They were regarded, therefore, as materials, not of criticism, but of interpretation." Bishop Marsh elsewhere remarks, that notwithstanding all the care of the Masorites to preserve the sacred text without variation, that most desirable object has not been attained, but yet, "if their success has not been complete, either in establishing or preserving the Hebrew text, they have only been guilty of the fault which is common to every human effort."

MAST. In the 23rd chapter of Proverbs, in speaking of a drunkard, occurs a word not met with elsewhere in the Hebrew Scriptures, hhebil, which our translators have rendered "mast:" "He that tarrieth long at the wine . . . . . is as he that lieth upon the top of a mast." (Prov. 23. 30,34.) In Isaiah 22. 23 and Ezekiel 27. 5, the word rendered "mast" is toren, and hence some doubts have been expressed as to the correctness of our authorized version; but it is clear from the context that some part of a ship is meant, and certainly "lying (sleeping) upon the top of a mast," affords a lively image of the heedless security of the drunkard.

MASTER, Nadoni; кaðŋynτns, is, in the sense of a ruler or instructor, a title applied to Our blessed Lord, (Matt. 23. 8,10;) also to ministers, (Eccl. 12. 11,) to tutors. (Luke 6. 40.) It is also used in a more restricted sense for an employer or the owner of slaves, as in Genesis 39. 20; Isaiah 24. 2. It is the duty of masters to instruct their servants in the knowledge of Divine things, to pray with them and for them, (Josh. 24. 15,) and to allow them time and leisure for religious services. (Ephes. 6. 9.)

MATTHEW, Marbatos, called also Levi, was the son of Alpheus, but not of that Alpheus or Cleophas who was the father of James, mentioned in Matthew 10. 3. He was a native of Galilee, but of what city in that country, or of what tribe of the people of Israel, we are not informed. Though a Jew, he was a publican or tax-gatherer under the Romans; and his office seems to have consisted in collecting the customs due upon commodities which were carried, and from persons who passed over the lake of Gennesareth. While employed "at the receipt of custom," Jesus called him to be a witness of his words and works, thus conferring upon him the honourable office of an Apostle. From that time he continued with Jesus Christ, a familiar attendant on his person, a spectator of his public and private conduct, a hearer of his discourses, a witness of his miracles, and an evidence of his resurrection. St. Matthew, soon after his call, made an entertainment at his house, at which were present Christ and some of his disciples, and also several publicans, (Luke 2. 15-17,) when the remarks made by the Scribes and Pharisees drew from Our Lord the gracious declaration, “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." After Our Saviour's ascension St. Matthew continued at Jerusalem with the other Apostles, and with them, on the day of Pentecost, was endowed with the gift of the Holy Spirit. How long he remained in Judæa after that event, we have no authentic account, nor indeed of any subsequent incident of his life. Socrates, an ecclesiastical historian of the fifth century, relates, that when the Apostles went abroad to preach to the Gentiles, Thomas took Parthia for his lot; Bartholomew, India; and Matthew, Ethiopia; and the common opinion is, that he was

crowned with martyrdom at Naddabar, or Naddaver, a city in that country; but as there is no account of him extant in any writer of the first four centuries, we must consider it as uncertain into what country he went, and likewise in what manner, and at what time, he died.

MATTHEW, GOSPEL OF ST. The variations of appellation of this, the first book of the New Testament, are numerous. In some Greek and Latin manuscripts and the earlier printed editions, as well as in the Coptic version and many Greek and Latin Fathers, its title is Ευαγγέλιον κατα Ματθαιον, " Gospel according to Matthew." In many other manuscripts, however, but of later date, it is To Kaта Maтbaιov aylov Evayyeλtov, which may be rendered either, "The Holy Gospel according to Matthew," or (which is adopted in our authorized version,) "The Gospel according to St. | Matthew." But in many of the most ancient Greek manuscripts, and in several editions, it is To Kата MаTKATA Oatov Evayyeλtov, which, in the ancient Latin versions, is rendered, Evangelium secundum Matthæum, “The Gospel according to Matthew." In the Arabic version, as printed in Bishop Walton's Polyglot, this Gospel is entitled, "The Gospel of St. Matthew the Apostle, which he wrote in Hebrew by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit;" in the Persian version it is, "Gospel of St. Matthew, which was spoken in the Hebrew tongue, in a city of Palestine, but written in Syriac at Antioch," and in the Syriac version, "The Gospel, the preaching of Matthew."

Differences of opinion have existed as to the date of this book, as well as with regard to its original language, but it appears certain that a very early date must be assigned to it, and that it was composed in Hebrew. Of its early date, and of its general reception by the primitive Church, the proofs are most satisfactory, and that it is rightly ascribed to the Apostle whose name it bears has never been disputed. It appears very improbable that the Christians should be left any considerable number of years without a written history of Our Saviour's ministry, and we may with reason conceive that the Apostles would be desirous of losing no time in writing an account of the miracles which Jesus performed, and of the discourses which he delivered, because the sooner such an account was published, the easier it would be to inquire into its truth and accuracy; and consequently, when these points were satisfactorily ascertained, the greater would be its weight and authority. We must own that these arguments are so strong in favour of an early publication of some history of Our Saviour's ministry, that we cannot but accede to the opinion of Wetstein, Dr. Owen, and Jones, that St. Matthew's Gospel was written about A.D. 38.

This Gospel also affords some striking internal evidences of its early date. The writer invariably ascribes those titles of sanctity to Jerusalem by which it had been distinguished by the prophets and ancient historians, and also testifies a higher veneration for the Temple than the other Evangelists; and this fact proves that his Gospel was written before the destruction of Jerusalem, and not after it, as has been recently asserted contrary to all evidence. The Evangelist's comparative gentleness in mentioning John the Baptist's reproof of of Herod, and his silence concerning the insults offered by Herod to Our Lord on the morning of his crucifixion, are additional evidences for the early date of his Gospel; for, as Herod was still reigning in Galilee, the Evangelist displayed no more of that sovereign's bad character than was absolutely necessary, lest he should excite Herod's jealousy of his believing subjects or their