5302. [i. 12. A sabbath-day's journey From the extremity of the squares of the camp in the wilderness, the respective distances were two thousand cubits, which consequently became a sabbath-day's journey, to the Lord's tabernacle at the centre. See Exod. xxxiii. 8, &c. Num. XXXV. 5. Josh. iii. 4.

Our law, says JOSEPHUS, requires us to go to dinner on sabbath-days, at the sixth hour (or noon).

See his Life, § 54. A sabbath-day's journey, it may hence be concluded, was but an English mile, as that was the distance of Olivet from Jerusalem.

See Dr. A. CLARKE, on Exod. xvi. 29.

5303. [13. Into an upper room] This might be that large one, in which Jesus had celebrated the last passover with his disciples. It is supposed to have belonged to John, surnamed Mark. (See Univer. Hist. vol. x. p. 404.) -Rather perhaps, it belonged to Joseph of Arimathea.

5304. [24.] Kardiognostes (Grk.), the knower

of hearts.

BOYLE.

5306. [ ii. 1.] On the fiftieth day from the celebration of the Pass-over in Egypt, the glory of God appeared on mount Sinai. To commemorate that glorious manifestation at the giving of the Ten Commandments, the Jews celebrate the feast of Pentecost.

See Dr. A. CLARKE, on Exod. xix. 1.

5307. [2-11.] As specula's may be so ordered, that by reflection they shall make one single thing appear many different things; as one single man to seem many men, differing as to shape and complexion: so may Echoing Bodies also be ordered, that from any one sound given, they shall produce many echoes, different both as to their tone and intension. By this means a musical Room may be so contrived, that not only one instrument, played on in it, shall seem many of the same sort and size; but even a consort of (somewhat) different ones; only by placing certain, echoing bodies so, as that any note (played) shall be returned by them in 3ds, 5ths, and 8ths.

Bp. NARCISSUS, Derham's Miscellanca Curiosa, vol. i. p. 138,

5308. [Acts ii. 8.] The discourse of spirits with man is in his mother tongue, which they speak as readily and skilfully, as if they had been born in the same country, and had been taught the same language from their infancy; and this, whether they be Europeans, or Asiatics, or from any other part of the globe. They know no other than that the language, in which they discourse with a man, is their own proper and native language: the case is the same with the other languages that the man is acquainted with. The reason is, because the language, which is familiar to spirits, is not a language of expressions, but a language of ideas of thought, which is the universal language of all languages; and when spirits are with a man, the ideas of their thought are conveyed into the expressions which are with the man, and this so correspondently and aptly, that the spirits know no other than that the very expressions are theirs, and that they are speaking in their own language, when yet they are speaking in the language of the man.- All souls are gifted with this faculty, immediately on their entrance into the other life, that they can understand the speech of all that dwell on the face of the whole earth, just as if it were their native tongue, because they perceive whatever a man thinks.

Thought is distinguished into ideas, as speech into expressions. External ideas of thought are the expressions of spirits; and the ideas of more interior thought the expressions of angels. Being thus the expressions of their speech, ideas are also sonorous among spirits and angels. Hence the tacit thought of a man is audible to spirits and angels, when it so pleases the Lord.

There is a certain channel within the mouth, which is called the eustachian tube, open in the mouth, terminating in the chamber of the ear, and encompassed with a thin membrane; through that channel respiratory air slides in under a gentle sound, and thus speaking thought is communicated.

SWEDENBORG, Arcana, nn. 1637, 6624, 10,587.

5309. [9.] The Parthians, and Indians near the Ganges, were converted by the Apostle Thomas.

BINGHAM'S Antiq. vol. i. p. 365. The Persians are here called Elamites. See Jer. xlix. 35-38.

5312. [Acts ii. 44, 45.] The American Indians, in their common state, are strangers to all distinction of property, except in the articles of domestic use, which every one considers as his own, and increases as circumstances admit. CARVER'S Trav. in N. America, p. 158.

Even among the Spartans, Lycurgus, a Heathen, it is well known, prevailed on the rich and noble to give up their ample possessions, to throw all they had into a common fund, and to reduce themselves to a level with their neighbours.

5313.

66

BELOE.

In this, they might be said to have imitated the instinct of certain animals, particularly of bees. These sagacious insects are actuated by a social spirit, which forms them into a body politic, immediately united, and perfectly happy. They all labour for the general advantage; they are all submissive to the laws and regulations of the community; having no particular interest, nor distinction, but those which nature or the necessities of their young have introduced amongst them. We never see them dissatisfied with their condition, nor inclinable to abandon the hive in disgust, at finding themselves slaves or necessitous. On the contrary, they think themselves in perfect freedom, and perfect affluence; and such indeed is their real condition. They are free, because they only depend on the laws; and they are h happy, because the concurrence of their several labors inevitably produces an abundance, which contributes to the riches of each individual. Human societies, compared with this, will appear altogether monstrous; for although necessity, reason and philosophy have established them for the commendable purposes of mutual aid and benefit, a spirit of selfishness too often destroys all; and one half of mankind, to load themselves with superfluities, leave the other destitute of common necessaries." SMITH.

See No. 1269, 1185.

5310. [ 23.] Having taken Him who had been given them by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, they had crucified and slain him with wicked hands. A participle is here used, which denotes the gift and present which God made of his Son to the Jews, to reclaim them from their error and vice.

See Essay for a New Translation, p. 79.

5311. [44, 45.] The Essenes, having all things in

5314. [Acts iii. 1.] The Jews had stated hours both for public and private prayer. It was Daniel's custom to pray three times a day, see Dun. vi. 10, and this was also the practice of David, Ps. lv. 17. Hence we learn not only how frequently, but at what times of the day those duties were performed. It is generally supposed that the morning and evening prayers were at the time of offering the morning and evening sacrifice, that is, at the 3rd and 9th hour: and the noon prayer was at the 6th hour, or 12 o'clock. We find in Scripture no express institution of the sacred

hours of prayer. The Jews say they received them from the patriarchs; the first hour from Abraham; the second from Isaac; and the third from Jacob.

See SALE'S Koran, Prelim. Dis. sect. iv. p. 107.

5315. [Acts iii. 1, 3.] The flames of two candles joined give a much stronger light than both of them separate; as is made very evident when a person holds the two candles near his face, first separate, and then joined in one. For immediately on the junction, his face will be observed to be much more strongly illuminated than it was before. It is conjectured, says Dr. PRIESTLEY, that the union of the two flames produces a greater degree of heat, and that this causes a further attenuation of the vapor, and a more copious emission of the particles of which light consists. See his Hist. of Vision, p. 807.

5319. [Acts v. 13.] Kollao (Grk.), signifying to glue, to cement, or to join compactly and close, here means the forming a compact, inviolable band, by an entire union of property and interest; such as was formed by this first association of sincere Christians, but such as could not, in the nature of things, be expected to take place afterwards among mankind in this world, nor would be expedient. Bib. Research, vol. i. p. 22.

5320. [- 34. There stood up one in the council, a Pharisee, named Gamaliel] Son of that Simeon who took Jesus in his arms and blessed him, &c. Luke ii. 25, &c.

5321. [——— 36, 37.] JOSEPHUS tells us, that Judas the Galilean was several years before Theudas, having lived in the reign of the emperor Augustus.

Compare Antiq. lib. xx. cap. 4. § 1; with Antiq. lib. xvii. cap. 12. § 5, and War, lib. ii. cap. 4. § 1. See also Essay for a New Translation, part ii. p. 209.

These Galileans, the sect that followed Judas, professed, in general, Pharisaical principles, but carried them to an immoderate length, particularly in civil points; hurrying their nation into that war, which terminated in the utter ruin of its whole people.

See Smith's MICHAELIS, vol. iii. p. 68.

5317. [Acts iv. 23.] As a senator among the Romans, and an alderman in our own language, signifies a person of such an order and station, without any regard to his age, in like manner a presbyter or elder in the Christian church is one who is ordained to a certain office, and authorized by his quality, not by his age, to discharge the several duties of that office and station, wherein he is placed. The elders here alluded to, were a sort of ecclesiastical senate, or council to the chief priests, who scarcely did any thing of great weight and moment without asking their advice, and taking their consent, to give the greater force and authority to all public acts done in the name of the church.

BINGHAM'S Antiquities, vol. i. pp. 74, 76.

5318. [-27, 28.] For of a truth both Herod and Pontius Pilate gathered themselves together, with the Gentiles, and people of Israel, against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed to do whatever thy power and wisdom had before determined to be done.

Essay for a New Translation, p. 80.

5324. [Acts vi. 3.] Deacons were to Christian ministers, what Levites were to the Jewish priesthood.

See BINGHAM'S Antiq. vol. i. p. 84.

5325. [ 5.] A proselyte adopts new opinions; a convert changes his life. A man, so long as he lives in the natural world, can be let into the wisdom of spiritual things, and also into the love of them This may and can be done, as well with those who are merely natural, as with those who are spiritual; but with this difference, that the latter are reformed by them, while the former are not.

SWEDENBORG, on Divine Providence, n. 225.

5326 [9.] Asia comprises, according to PINKERTON, Asiatic Turkey and Russia, the Chinese empire, Japan, the Birman empire, Siam, Hindostan, Persia, Independent Tartary, and Arabia.

There was in Lybia a town or district called Libertina, whose inhabitants were named Libertines.

Bp. PEARCE.

Yet

5327. [Acts vii. 6.] The four hundred years that Abraham's seed sojourned in a strange land, must be reckoned, not from their going into Egypt, but from the birth of Isaac. While they sojourned in Canaan, Gerar, or elsewhere, they were still in a strange land where they had not a foot of ground, except the cave of Machpelah. They were brought into bondage and evil entreated of men, though blessed of God and favoured with unspeakable promises. Isaac was oppressed in Gerar, his wells filled up by its inhabitants, and himself ultimately forced from amongst them, Jacob served and was oppressed by Laban nearly twenty years. neither of them laboured under a continual oppression. The Egyptian servitude did not commence till Joseph and his brethren were dead before that the Israelites lived in peace and plenty. These things duly considered, it will be found that they had at most but a hundred and twenty-two years of thraldom. So that the natural sense of the prophecy alluded to by Stephen can only be this: that Abraham's seed, from Isaac onwards, should be strangers in a land not theirs, during the space of 400 years; during part of which period they should be oppressed, afflicted, and at length brought under bondage: which term being expired, they should find a happy deliverance.

1

Univer. Hist. vol. ii. p. 364.

5328. [ 14.] Threescore and ten souls. The

extra five were Joseph's grand-children and great grandchildren not boru at the time Jacob went down into Egypt. Stephen here follows the Septuagint, which is erroneous. See Gen. xlvi. 27. But in Deut. x. 22, the Septuagint has but 70.

5329. [Acts vii. 15, 16.] JOSEPHUS (Antiq. b. ii. ch. ) says expressly, that the bodies of Joseph's brethren were carried back by their children and grand-children, and buried in Hebron but that Joseph's bones were carried by the Hebrews into Canaan when they departed out of Egypt, as he had bound them by an oath. (Compare Gen. 1. 25 with Exod. xiii. 19.) - Accordingly those brethren were buried, as above, in Sichem; Joshua xxiv. 32.

5332.

There might then be in Egypt Traditions, which had come directly from Adam to Lamech, to Noah, to Terab, to Abraham, to Jacob, to Levi, to Amram, to Moses who undoubtedly had seen all the hieroglyphical representations preserved among the Israelites, and also all of that kind that constituted the wisdom of the Heathen Egyptians. In particular, it is said, that Abraham taught the Egyptians many things; and it is written, that Joseph was to teach their senators wisdom: all which especially, Moses might be induced carefully to learn.

5333.

See HUTCHINSON's Covenant in the Cherubim, p. 7.

Our legislator, says JOSEPHUS, speaks some things wisely, but enigmatically, and others under a decent allegory, but still explains such things as required a direct explication plainly and expressly.

5334. The Hebrew has See No. 665.

Preface to Antiquities of the Jews.

28.] This quotation is from the Septuagint. not yesterday.