either hemisphere, some both, some have various risings and settings ; on earth, rivers sometimes withdraw themselves from the sight of men, until by hidden ways they reach the place where they again burst forth. Thus the Divine Oracles are dispensed with admirable variety ; a singular example of which is afforded by the passage in St John, concerning the three who bear witness in heaven, of which the Eastern Church was for many ages in ignorance, whilst the Western and African Churches maintained it always, though not everywhere. This prediction, indeed, He shall be called a Nazarene, was not known or understood by most persons ; otherwise Galilee and Nazareth itself would not have been so much despised (see John i. 47, and vii. 52). And, rightly, many have long since denied that this verse exists in the Scriptures of the Old Testa ment. Its condition, therefore, is the same as that of the prophecy of Enoch, introduced at length by St Jude into the Scriptures of the New Testament, and thus stamped with the seal of inspiration ; the same as that of the apothegm, which, though delivered by our Lord, does not occur in the Gospels, but is quoted by the mouth of St Paul, and the pen of St Luke, Acts xx. 35. Nor have the Jews any ground of accusa tion, because anything is quoted in the New Testament which does not exist in the Old ; for they relate many ancient things which equally are not to be found there. Where lay hid the Proverbs of Solomon from ch. xxv. 1 ; the prophecy of Aza- riah (2 Chron. xv. 2, etc.) ; the epistle of Elijah (2 Chron. xxi. 12), until they were inserted in the books of the Old Tes tament, many ages after they were delivered I Certainly, there was no sufficient reason why St Matthew should frame1 this, if it had been a perfect novelty in his own time. By such a pro ceeding, he would have more injured than advantaged the whole Christian cause. He had sufficiently numerous examples of prophecies fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth without this. Those who interpret this important verse more vaguely, so as to make out that it is contained here or there in the Scriptures of the Old Testament, in truth take away one from the ancient
1 i.e,, It would serve no purpose to insert this prediction, if it had been a mere figment. — (I. B.)