4835. [Matt. xxv. 33.] The natural mind, with all things appertaining to it, is turned in spiral circumvolutions from right to left; but the spiritual mind, from left to right. These minds, in an unconverted state, are thus turned in gyres the reverse of each other; a sign that evil resides in the natural mind, and that from itself it acts against the spiritual mind. The circumgyration from right to left is also, by its interual flux, turned downwards, consequently towards hell. But the circumgyrations from left to right, effected by the influence of the Lord, turns upwards, consequently towards heaven. By reformation, the spiritual mind retwists the spire in which are the action and reaction of the natural mind; and by regeneration, the two minds act as one, the natural mind being filled and glorified in giving forth the influences which descend into it from the spiritual mind. See SWEDENBORG, on Divine Love, nn. 263, 270.

4839. [Matt. xxvi. 7.] Alabastron did not properly signify a vessel made of the stone now called alabaster, but one without handles (me echon labas, Grk.). — PLINY has informed us of the shape of these vessels, by comparing to them the pearls called elenchi, which are known to have been shaped like pears, or, as he expresses it, fastigiatà lougitudine, alabastorum figura, in pleniorem orbem desinentes; lib. ix. See Beloe's note 24, on Herodot. Thalia,

cap. 35. chap. xx.

4840.

The unguents, so universally esteemed in Asia, are preserved in small bottles, and boxes of onyx or alabaster they make a conspicuous figure on the Indian toilette, and form a considerable article of traffic with the borahs and travelling merchants throughout Hindostan ; espe ally those from the sandal and mogree; the roses of Surat are neither so abundant nor fragrant as to produce the valuable attyr. Resembling some of these, was probably the box of ointment used by the pious Mary, and the nard mentioned in the invitation from HORACE to Virgil: Nardo vina merebere,

Ode 12.1. 4.

Nardi parvus onyx eliciet cadum. FORBES' Oriental Memoirs, vol. iii. p. 411.

Prov. vii. 17.

4837.

This, and all other denunciations of eternal punishment, are to be regarded in Sacred Scripture as so many previous warnings or declarations of the inevitable consequence and natural tendency of sin in itself to render us miserable in another world. So that a hardened and unrepenting sinner cannot be otherwise than miserable in another life by a necessity of nature, and therefore not capable of mercy; since there can never be any alteration of his state and condition, without such a change of the whole man, as would put the natural and settled order of creation out of course.

Bp. BROWNE'S Procedure of the Understanding, p. 351.

4838.

It is not for notional or speculative mistakes, that man will be rejected by God at the last day, or for any crimes that God could overlook, if he was so pleased; but because, man has continued in his unregenerate state, and has resisted and suppressed that birth of life, by which alone he could become a member of the kingdom of heaven. The goodness and love of God have no limits or bounds, but such as his Omnipotence hath and every thing that hath a possibility of partaking of the kingdom of heaven, will infallibly find a place in it. John iii. 19.

LAW's Appeal, p. 88.

down, as the word signifies; for the posture of the Jews at the passover-table especially, was not properly sitting, but reclining or lying along on couches on their left side. This posture was reckoned so necessary, that it is said, "The poorest man in Israel might not eat, until he lies along." This was to be done in the manner of free-men, in remembrance of their liberty. One of the Jewish writers says, "We are bound to eat lying along, as kings and great men eat; because it is a token of liberty." This custom was uniformly observed at the passover. GILL, in loco.

See Gen. xix. 32 — 35. xxxiv. 2.

exiv, cxv, cxvi, cxvii, and exviii, termed by the Jews halel, hallelu-yah, the first word in Psalm cxiii. These six Psalms were always sung at every paschal solemnity.

Dr. A. CLARKE, on the Eucharist, p. 74.

4851. [Matt. xxvi. 34.] A dissenting minister, in a work written expressly on the subject, has endeavoured to prove that this cock-crowing meant the Roman sentinels sounding with their trumpets the hour of the night. See Month. Mag. for Aug. 1814, p. 17.

4846. [Matt. xxvi. 23.] As the Moon, though she receive all the light that ennobles her from the sun, does yet, when she is admitted to the nearest conjunction with him, eclipse that bright planet, to which she owes all her splendor; so unthankful men abuse those very favors that should endear to them their benefactors, to the prejudice of those that oblige them.

BOYLE'S Occasional Reflections, vol. iv. p. 56.

4847. [———— 26.] Basar, commonly rendered flesh, is among the Hebrews equivalent to body.

See Gen. xxix. 14. Smith's MICHAELIS, vol. ii. p. 49.

4848. [ 26, 27.] Mark here, it is expressly said to the disciples concerning the wine, Drink ye all of it', whereas on the exhibition of the bread the particle all is omitted. This difference the primitive Christians might be tempted to think useless or superfluous; but we that live in an age when the cup is denied to the lay-communicants of a certain part of the Christian Church, are invited not only to absolve the recording of this particularity, but to admire it. BOYLE, on the Style of the Holy Scriptures, P. 82.

knew that their evidence could not criminate him; and that they had, besides, contradicted each other.

Smith's MICHAELIS, vol. iv. p. 327.

4869. [Matt. xxvi. 65. Then the high-priest rent his clothes] In this act, the cloak was thrown open, and gathered on the left arm, in order that the right hand might be fully at liberty to cast on the judgment-table the stones of condemnation.

See on John viii. 10, and on Deut. xiii. 10.

4860.[74.] Peter, it seems, when greatly alarmed,. was subject to a very extraordinary alienation of mind. At the transfiguration, he expressed himself wildly; he wist not what to say, being sore afraid. This temporary frenzy appears to be a weakness almost peculiar to Asia. A very remarkable instance of it, says HALHED, Occurred lately in the supreme court of judicature at Calcutta, where a man (not an idiot) swore on a trial, that he was no kind of relation to his own brother who was then in court, and who had constantly supported him from his infancy; and that he lived in a house by himself, for which he paid the rent from his own pocket, when it was proved that he was not worth a rupee, and when the person in whose house he had always resided stood at the bar close to him.

Code of Gentoo Laws, Preface, p. 49.

4861. [Matt. xxvii. 3, 8.] Sejanus has his consulship mentioned on a coin of Tiberius, as he has the honor to give a name to the year in which our Saviour was crucified.

ADDISON, on Medals, p. 182.

4862. [9. Spoken by the prophet] "Jeremiah" is here omitted; as it is in the Syriac version, Persic version, and some MSS. WELLS. False: See Zech.

4863. [- 11.] It was the custom for the judge to sit; and those who were judged to stand, especially whilst witness was given against them. (GILL, in loco.) — Hence the phrase of "lifting up the head" in judgment; Gen.

xl. 20.

4868. [45, 46.] It was on the 14th of Nisan, A. M. 4040, just 490 years after Ezra (ch. vii) received his commandment to restore the ecclesiastical and political state of Jerusalem, that the Messiah was cut off Á. I. P. 4746, on the 3rd of April, on a Friday, in the 19th year of the reign of Tiberias Cesar, when Pontius Pilate was procurator of Judea; when Daniel's prophecy of "seventy weeks" was completed by the death of Christ, who expired on the cross, on the day, hour, and minute that the paschal lamb was ordered to be slain; for God directs it (Exod. xii. 6) to be killed on the fourteenth day of the month, between the two evenings. PENROSE'S Lett. p. 69.

4864. [25.] The Siccarii, that perished by their own bands in the fortress of Masada, were nine hundred and sixty in number, the women and children being included in

4869.

The Original Constitution of the Apostles, preserved by EPIPHANIUS from his Eastern uncorrupted Copy, and made the reason for their rule about Easter,

directly affirms, that Christ was crucified on the Fifteenth of Nisan.

Hæres. xx. § 11. p. 823, quoted in W. WHISTON'S Historical Preface.

4870. [Matt. xxvii. 45, 51.] On the day our Saviour suffered, the sun was darkened at full moon, when she is distant from him 180 degrees. Probably this darkness arose from a volcanic eruption, causing the "earthquake".

4871.

"The crucifixion of Christ under Pontius Pilate is related by Tacitus, and the earthquake and miraculous darkness attending it were recorded in the public Roman registers, commouly appealed to by the first christian writers, as what could not be denied by the adversaries themselves; and are in a particular manner attested by Phlegon, the freed man of Adrian.

"Some people have said, that the above-mentioned darkness might have been occasioned by a natural eclipse of the sun; and, consequently, that there was nothing miraculous in it. If this had been the case, it is plain, that our Saviour must have been crucified at the time of new moon. But then, in a natural way, the darkness could not possibly have continued for more than five minutes whereas, to have made it continue for three hours, the moon's motion in her orbit must have been stopped for three hours, and the earth's motion on its axis must have been stopped so long too. And then, if the power of gravitation had not been suspended during all that time, the moon would have fallen a great way towards the earth. So that nothing less than a triple miracle must have been wrought to have caused such a long continued darkness by the interposition of the moon between the sun and any part of the earth which shews, that they who make such a supposition are entirely ignorant of the nature of eclipses. But there could be no natural or regular eclipse of the sun on the day of Christ's crucifixion, as the moon was full on that day, and, consequently in the side of the heavens opposite to the sun. And, therefore, the darkness at the time of his crucifixion was quite supernatural.”

4872. [

ADAMS.

46.] The words here used, must have been quoted from the Chaldee Paraphrase on Ps. xxii. 1; for in the Hebrew we read Eli, Eli, lama azabtani, and the word sabacthani is no where to be found but in the Chaldee tongue. Bib. Research. Introduc. p. 64.

4873.

Eli here, is Hebrew; Eloi in Mark, is Syriac both signify My God.

4881. [18. All power is given by me in heaven