hast increased thy riches, and thine heart is lifted up because of thy riches: 6. Therefore thus saith the Lord God; because thou hast set thine heart as the heart of God; 7. Behold therefore, I will bring the strangers upon thee, the terrible of the nations and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of thy wisdom, and they shall defile thy brightness: 8. They shall bring thee down to the pit, and thou shalt die the deaths of them that are slain in the midst of the seas. 9. Wilt thou yet say before him that slayeth thee, I am God: but thou shalt be a man, and no God, in the hand of him that slayeth thee. 10. Thou shalt die the deaths of the uncircumcised, by the hand of the strangers: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord God.

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11. And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying; 12. Son of man, take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God: Thou art like a signet of curious engraving*; thou art full of wisdom and perfect

* Thou art like a signet of curious engraving.] "See Jerem. "xxii. 24. Hag. ii. 23. Houbigant observes, that all the "ancients read man similitudinis: hoc est effigiem habens in

sculptura sua. This is also the reading of eight M.S.S. and of "three originally. Dathius renders, Tu es annulus bène figu"ratus." Abp. Newcome in loc.

Σε αποσφραγισμα ὁμοιώσεως. (LΧΧ.) Tu sigillum es exemplaris. (Vers: Syriac :) Tu signaculum similitudinis. (Vers: Arab: et Vulg:) Tu similis es vasi figurato, quod scitè compositum est et absolutum in pulchritudine sua. Chald. Paraph

in beauty. 13. Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God: every precious stone is thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. 14. Thou art the anointed cherub that spreadeth a veil; and I have permitted thee: thou wast in the holy mountain of God; in the midst of the stones of fire * thou walkedst

The stones of fire.] An allusion to the Urim and Thummim. The Pope pretends to the same oracular infallibility of decision in the Christian church, that the Jewish high priest by his supernatural intercourse with God really possessed in the Levitical church. Josephus maintains, that the Urim and Thummim were the precious stones of the high-priest's breast plate, which discovered the will of God by their extraordinary lustre, thereby predicting the success of events to those who consulted them: for, when these stones gave no extraordinary lustre, it was concluded that God did not approve of the matter in question. He adds, that it was 200 years, at the time of his writing, since these stones had left off shewing this lustre. (Ant. L. in. C. 8.)

It is possible however, that this passage may relate, not only to the oracular infallibility of the Pope, but likewise to his universal episcopacy. An expression, somewhat similar to that of walking up and down in the midst of the stones of fire, occurs in the Apocalypse. "These things saith he, that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks." (Rev. ii. 1.) That is to say, according to the explanation of Archdeacon Woodhouse, The supreme head of the Christian church is now in the act of " visiting

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walkedst up and down. 15. Thou wast perfect * in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. 16. By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God, and I will destroy thee, O cherub that spreadest a veil, from the midst of the stones of fire. 17. Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to thee ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee. 18. Thou hast defiled thy sanc

"visiting and superintending. To the church of Ephesus, with "which he begins, he represents himself in that character "and office, as walking amidst his churches, and directing "and supporting their teachers." (Apoc. translated, p. 44.) Perhaps therefore the circumstance of the mystical Tyrian prince's walking up and down in the midst of the stones of fire may denote the universal episcopacy of the pretended vicar of Christ, who claims the right of superintending or walking amidst all the churches. In this case, the passage would be exactly parallel to that, wherein Daniel represents the little papal horn as having eyes like the eyes of a man. "By its eyes," says Sir Isaac Newton, it was a seer; and, by its mouth speaking great things and changing times and laws, it was a prophet-A seer, ToxoTos, is a bishop in the literal sense of the word; " and this church claims the universal bishopric." Observ. on Dan. C. 7.

* Thou wast perfect.] Thou wast Thummim: a sort of play upon the word Thummim, in its sense of perfection, not unusual among the sacred writers.

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tuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffic: therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee; and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee. 19. All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more.

20. And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying; 21. Son of man, set thy face against Zidon*, and prophesy against her, 22. And say, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against thee, O Zidon; and I will be glorified in the midst of thee: and they shall know, that I am the Lord, when I shall have executed judgments in her, and shall be sanctified in her. 23. For I will send pestilence into her, and blood into her streets; and the wounded shall be judged in the midst of her by the sword upon her on every side; and they shall know, that I am the Lord. 24. And unto the house of Israel there shall be no more a thorn which causeth to rankle, nor a sharp thorn that causeth

* Set thy face against Zidon.] If Zidon mean something dif ferent from Tyre, which perhaps is not very probable, we may suppose it to typify the smaller spiritually trading states in close connection with Rome; such as the German ecclesiastical electorates, episcopal principalities, and monastic baronies. I think however, that this distinction is a needless refiuement. Tyre was the daughter of Zidon, and they are always represented as most closely connected together.

to ulcerate, of all that are round about them that despised them; and they shall know, that I am the Lord God.

25. Thus saith the Lord God; When I shall have gathered the house of Israel from the people among whom they have been scattered, and shall be sanctified in them in the sight of the heathen, then shall they dwell in the land which I have given unto my servant, unto Jacob. 26. And they shall dwell safely therein, and shall build houses, and plant vineyards; yea they shall dwell with confidence, when I have executed judgments upon all those that despise them round about them; and. they shall know that I am the Lord their God.

COMMENTARY.

In the 26th chapter, Ezekiel undoubtedly speaks of the overthrow of the literal Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar; but, in the 27th and 28th chapters, he cannot mean the literal Tyre and its prince, because their predicted overthrow is immediately connected with the restoration of Israel*. Nor

the

* See Ezek. xxviii. 24, 25, 36. Mr. Lowth, commenting on passage there shall be no more a pricking brier unto the house of Israel, justly observes, that "the following verse shews that "this promise chiefly relates to the general restoration of the "Jews, when all the enemies of God's church and truth are "vanquished and subdued; often denoted in the prophetical "writings by the names of Edom, Moab, and other neighbouring "countries, who upon all occasions shewed their spite and ill "will against the Jews."