which I call the literal and primitive signification, ought to be retained. 11. FIRST then, this sense ought to be retained. in the version, when the word evayyɛλov is construed with a noun serving to limit or explain its nature, as το ευαγγέλιον της ειρηνης, the good news of peace, το ευαγγέλιον της βασιλειας, the good news of the reign. It was observed, on the explanation of the word Baotλia, that the Christian economy was foretold under the denomination of the reign of God, and the reign of Heaven; and I may add, in the typical language of the Psalms, the reign of David. Now, there were, about the time of our Saviour's appearance, many who, from the predictions of the Prophets, and signs of the times, waited, with pious confidence, for the consolation of Israel, that is, for the coming of the Lord's Messiah, and the commencement of his glorious reign. This was the great subject of comfort to them, amidst all the distresses and oppressions, personal or political, under which they groaned. For, how erroneous soever the prevalent notions concerning the person of the Messiah, and the nature of his reign, were; they agreed in this, that they exhibited him as a deliverer, in whose time, the principal grievances of the nation were to be redressed; and, in consequence of this, the people looked forward with faith and hope, but not without a mixture of impatience, to that longdeferred, as they then thought, but happy era, the mission and consequent reign of the Messiah. Free dom to the slave, release to the prisoner, pardon to the convict, could not be more welcome, or afford matter of greater joy, than the tidings, well authenticated, that that blessed period, spoken of in raptures by their Prophets, and described in the most glowing colours of Eastern poetry, was at length arrived. Hence it is not improbable that, even some time before the birth of Jesus, this much wished event came to be denominated, by those who expected it, perhaps the majority of the nation, the good news (being such in an eminent manner), and more explicitly the good news of the reign of God, that is, of the new dispensation that would obtain under the promised Messiah. § 12. A NUMBER of suchlike phrases, borrowed from the Prophets, and from the Psalms, relating to this event, had become current among the people, and were adopted both by our Lord and by John his harbinger. Thus the Messiah himself is styled o Epxouevos, he that cometh, not he that should come, as it is less properly rendered in the common version, it being an abbreviation of that expression of the Psalmist 3, He that cometh in the name of the Lord. Now it is manifest that, when first the Baptist, then our Lord himself, and lastly his Apostles, in his lifetime, announced publicly the ap. proach of this reign; they announced what the generality of the people would immediately, and without difficulty, apprehend. I do not mean, that they 23 cxviii. 26. would understand the nature of the reign or spiritual dominion to be established; for this is what few or none did; but that they would immediately understand it to relate to the accession of the Messiah, their great deliverer, to that sovereignty with which they had learnt from the Prophets, and from the scribes, that he was to be invested. The dispensation, therefore, is properly ushered in with an authoritative call to all men to amend their lives, and prepare for the reign of the Messiah, the expectation and joy of God's people, just about to commence. Nothing, therefore, could be more suitable, and, though alarming to the wicked, nothing could be more consolatory to the pious, at the time the nation was in subjection to a foreign and oppressive yoke, than such seasonable information. Nothing, consequently, can be better accommodated to what must have been the sentiments and prospects of the people at that time, or can more accurately express the full import of the original, κηρύσσων το ευαγγελιον της βασιλειας το Θε8, than this literal and plain version, Proclaiming the glad tidings of the reign of God. This conveys to us, at this moment, the same ideas which, in those circumstances, must have been conveyed by the words of the sacred historian, into the mind of every Jewish reader at the time, § 13. On the contrary, the expression in the vul gar translation, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, must have been to such a reader unintelligible; as even to us, when we abstract from the fa- miliarity occasioned by custom, which is apt to impose upon us, it appears both obscure and improper. Castalio, in one place 24, departs, if possible, still farther from the sense, rendering it regium publicans evangelium, "publishing the royal gospel.” Not to mention the futility of the term royal, applied in a way which renders it a mere expletive; the very subject published, Bao2ea, the reign, is justled out to make room for a splendid but unmeaning epithet. Our Lord, we find from the evangelists, spoke to his countrymen in the dialect of their own Scriptures, and used those names to which the reading of the Law and the Prophets, either in the original, or in the versions then used, had familiarized them. Our translators, and indeed, most European translators, represent him as using words which, even in their own translations of the Old Testament, never occur, and to which, in fact, there is nothing there that corresponds in meaning. The people had all heard of the reign of the Messiah, to be established in the latter times, and considered the arrival of that period as the happiest tidings with which they could be made acquainted. But of the Gospel they "What is this you call had never heard before. "the Gospel?" they would naturally ask; "and "what does the Gospel of a kingdom mean?" These are words to which our ears are strangers. No mention is made of such things in the Law, in the Prophets, or in the Psalms. 24 Matth. iv. 23. 14. Now, if the terms must have been altoge ther unintelligible to Jews, they are, even to us Christians, both obscure and improper. First, obscure, because indefinite. It does not appear easy in such circumstances, as those under consideration, to assign a precise meaning to the word Gospel. We commonly understand by it the whole religious institution of Jesus, including both doctrines and precepts. Nothing can be plainer than that this is not the meaning of the term here. The very words which were preached or promulgated, are expressly mentioned, and comprised in a single sentence: Μετανοείτε, ήγγικε γαρ η βασιλεια των ερανων. Besides, the Apostles, who, in our Lord's lifetime, received this commission, were not yet qualified for teaching the system of doctrine implied under the name gospel, because, in fact, they did not know it themselves. They had then no notion of a Messiah, but as a temporal prince, and mighty conqueror, or of his kingdom, but as a secular monarchy, more extensive than, but of the same nature with, those, which had preceded, to wit, the Assyrian, the Persian, the Macedonian empires, or, that which was in being at the time, the Roman. Not one of their hearers could have been more prejudiced, than the Apostles themselves were, at that time, against a suffering Saviour, who was to expire, in agonies and infamy, on a cross. Now, let people but coolly reflect, and then put the question to themselves; If we set aside these important truths, the death, and consequently the re |