A supplement to Dr. Hammond's paraphrase and annotations on the New Testament in which his interpretation of many important passages is freely and impartially examin'd, and confirm'd or refuted : and the sacred text further explain'd by new remarks upon every chapter / by Monsieur Le Clerc ; English'd by W. P. ; to which is prefix'd a letter from the author to a friend in England, occasion'd by this translation.

CHAP. VII.

Vers. 14. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 for 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Grotius tells us is after the man∣ner of the Hellenists, i. e. of the Jews, who spake Greek not so correctly as they should have done, and produces Examples of it. But Salmasius, in the Epist. Dedic. to his Commentar. de Hellenist. says, that he elsewhere proves it to be Alexandrian. Where this proof is I cannot tell; but it is enough to justify its being called a Hellenism, if it be but improper Greek, and has something discernible of a Hebraism in it. The Hebrews use 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 to express 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, which it is no wonder if he that interpreted S. Matthew imitated. Now the reason why the Gate that leads to Hap∣piness is said by Christ to be straight, is because as men live, it lets

in but few. The same similitude is made use of, to intimate this to us, by Cebes in his Table, where we find these words: 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉; Do you see also a cer∣tain little gate, and a path before that gate which is not much frequented, but trodden only by a very few, as seeming to be unpassable, rugged, and uneven? And he that was asked, making answer, that he did see it; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉: This, he said, was that way that leads to true Learning.

Vers. 23. Note d.] Our Author is here mistaken; for in all the best Greek Writers there is nothing more common than this Phrase, which is a form of turning the Discourse that was before indirect into a direct one, or of mixing both those ways of speaking together, and it makes the sense to be no other than if all the Sentence was indirectly spoken: I will profess to them that I never knew them, and will bid all that work Iniquity to depart from me. And this way of confounding a direct and indirect Speech together, tho it seems I know not how to have something that looks careless in it, yet it ex∣presses the thing more to the life than any other way would do. There is an instance of this in Theophrastus, Charact. cap. iii. de Adu∣latione: 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉: As he was on his way to a certain Friend of his, the (Flatterer) overtook him and told him, his (Friend) was co∣ming to him; and then returning back, I have given him, says he, no∣tice beforehand of your coming. Such Examples as these we may, in our reading, every where meet with; which makes the bare suggest∣ing of it here to be sufficient.

Notes

• Chapter VIII.