A

DICTIONARY

OF

WRITERS ON THE PROPHECIES,

WITH THE TITLES AND OCCASIONAL
DESCRIPTION OF THEIR WORKS.

SIMPKIN, MARSHALL AND CO.

ALSO BY SEELEYS, FLEET STREET; NISBET & CO. BERNERS STREET;
BURNS, PORTMAN STREET, PORTMAN SQUARE; BEGG, GLASGOW ;
SOMERSCALE, LEEDS; AND TURVEY, RETFord.

MDCCCXXXV.

250. i. 42

RETFORD: PRINTED BY T. TURVEY.

PREFACE.

In presenting the Dictionary of Writers on Prophecy completed to the Public, we have first to acknowledge our great obligations to various individuals who have contributed towards it. We are indebted to one Friend (who desires not to be mentioned by name) for the great bulk of the German writers, and for much labor and toil cheerfully undertaken for us in the general preparation of the work. We are likewise indebted to the Rev. H. Girdlestone for a large quota of French Authors, and for many other valuable contributions. To the Rev. E. Bickersteth, the Rev. W. W. Pym, and several others who have furnished us with corrections or additional names, we have also to return our thanks; and it is but just to mention that we have found Watt's Bibliotheca Britannica of great service

to us.

Such readers as are well acquainted with the subject will doubtless discover numerous omissions: we trust however that the articles which we here present; will nevertheless be found of great utility to the student of Prophecy; and if the work is sufficiently approved by the Public to enable us hereafter to proceed to a Second Edition, we hope, not only to add many names, but greatly to increase the notices of works, and in other respects to make it more complete. In the mean while we shall be greatly obliged by the communication to us of additional Authors, more enlarged titles, short notices or corrections of those inserted, and any other information calculated to render the work more complete. These if addressed to The Editor of the Investigator and Expositor on Prophecy, to the care of Messrs. Simpkin and Marshall, will be duly forwarded to us.

In regard to the notices of Works, we wish particularly to state, that, when they are borrowed, we must not be understood as always approving the opinion given; for in some instances we do not: but we conceive it is nevertheless interesting, in the way of information, to know the sentiments entertained by established writers of particular authors: and they must be received therefore with due allowance for the circumstances and opinions of the author quoted.

There are numerous works having a connexion with the subject of prophecy, with which we have in a measure been perplexed; as the insertion of them in the body of the work might in some instances tend to mislead. For example, those who have published commentaries upon the whole of the sacred writings, are necessarily obliged to take some notice in their works of the prophetical parts of Scripture; and some few do consequently

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enter largely upon this subject: the greater number however either pass over such portions of God's word in a brief and superficial manner, being evidently unacquainted and embarrassed with the subject; or they present mere extracts or repetition from some preceding Commentator.

Next there are portions of the Scriptures, which, though by some few Commentators they are treated prophetically, are by the generality not treated so as for example the Song of Solomon, called also Canticles and the Song of Songs. So likewise the Psalms are by some viewed almost entirely in a prophetical light; whilst by others, (and that the majority) a few only of the Psalms are thought to possess a prophetical character, and the rest are limited by them to the ordinary experience of the believer.* Again, the Lamentations of Jeremiah are rarely treated with reference to things to come; though from the circumstance of their being written by one of the prophets, commentaries on them might seem to require a place in an enumeration of writers on prophecy, and are therefore actually inserted in our Dictionary. The same may be said of the prophet Jonah; a portion of Scripture which is equally devoid of a directly prophetical character.

We have however relieved ourselves from the principal difficulty by throwing together into an Appendix a list of Commentators, Annotators and Paraphrasts on the whole Scriptures, or on either the Old or New Testaments separately; as also of writers on the Psalms and Canticles, with a few that have been omitted on the Lamentations of Jeremiah.

We add likewise the names of Commentators on certain portions of Scripture, which contain direct prophetical matter, and which therefore can scarcely fail to elicit in some degree the views of the Expositor, whether they be original or adopted. For example, the PENTATEUCH CONtains in Genesis XLIX the prophetical blessing of Jacob on the twelve patriarchs; Exodus contains in Chap, xv the Song of Moses, which is by many considered prophetical; Leviticus xxvi has a similar character; and the prophecies of Balaam chap. XXII.-XXIV of Numbers, and the song of Moses, Deuteronomy XXXII, are still more directly prophetical. Of the NEW TESTAMENT none can fully expound the Gospels without entering into the important prophecy of our Lord in Matthew xxiv, Mark XIII, and Luke xx1; besides other subjects bearing on prophecy. The Epistle to the Romans will lead to the consideration of the time of Restitution of all things and the conversion of the Jews, chaps. VIII. and XI. The first Epistle to the Corinthians treats in chap. xv. of the Resurrection from the dead and the Kingdom of Christ;-the two Epistles to the Thessalonians to the subject of the Apostasy and the Advent of Christ; and are so commonly treated prophetically, that they might rather have been placed in the Dictionary;-1st and 2nd Timothy refer also to the character of Antichrist and the last day apostates;-2nd Peter to the coming of the day of God; and with Jude to the character of the false teachers and professors of the last days;—and 1st John to the Antichrist.

*Besides those in the body of the work a few names occur to us of those who treat the Canticles prophetically; viz. Alsted, Brightman, Davidson. Duguet, Durham, Fry, Origen and Veil. The following also treat the Psalms in like manner, viz. Allix, Duguet, Fenwick, Fry, and Horsley.

DICTIONARY

WRITERS ON THE PROPHECIES,

WITH THE TITLES AND OCCASIONAL
DESCRIPTION OF THEIR WORKS.