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4746.

Dr. A. Clarke's FLEURY, p. 185.

JOSEPHUS, who was born a Jew 23 years before the destruction of Jerusalem, and from his knowledge of the Hebrew Scriptures must have very well understood what was the law on this point, says that, according to the Mosaic ordinances, the castration of either man or beast was not lawful. (See Antiq lib. iv. ch. viii. § 40.) - The Orientals, to curb their uncastrated work-beasts, bore the nose through both sides, and put through it a ring, to which they fasten two cords: and when a beast becomes unruly, they have only to draw the cord on one side; which, by stopping his breath, punishes him so effectually, that after a few repetitions, he fails not to become quite tractable, whenever he begins to feel it. (See Smith's MICHAELIS, vol. ii. Art. 168.) This would illustrate 2 Kings xix. 28.

4751. [- 24.] The Rabbins as well as the Arabs were accustomed, in describing an impossibility, to say proverbially, it will not happen before a camel or an elephant have crept through the eye of a needle.

4752.

MICHAELIS, by Marsh, vol. i. p. 131.

A camel] Instead of kamelon (Grk.), camel, six MSS. read kamilon, cable. Dr. A. CLARKE, in loco.

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4758. [Matt. xx. 23.] But to sit on my right hand and on my left I cannot give, except to those for whom the Father has prepared it. Essay for a New Trans. part ii. p. 130.

4762 [Matt. xxi. 7.] Christians cannot indeed repine at being forbidden to ride on horseback in the streets of Cairo, for the asses are there very handsome; and are used for riding, by the greater part of the Mahometans; and by the most distinguished women of the country.

NIEBUHR, p. 39, Fr. edition.

4759.

Those sit at the right and left of Jesus Christ who are in other Heavens than His, in the four-square Jerusalem above; see Rev. xxi. 16.

4760. [Matt. xxi. 7.] In Judea the common way of riding was on asses, even among the rich. To give us a great idea of Jair, one of the judges over the people, the Scripture tells us that he had thirty sons who were rulers of thirty cities, riding (as judges) on thirty asses. It is recorded of Abdon, another judge, that he had forty sons, and thirty grandsons, that rode on threescore and ten (she) asses; and in the song of Deborah, the captains of Israel (the judges, Exod. xviii. 21, 22) are described as mounted on sleek and shining (she) asses. Judges v. 10. x. 4. See Dr. A. Clarke's FLEURY, p. 63. All the deliverers of Israel rode upon asses. Horses were forbidden them; Deut. xvii. 16,

4761.

In Spain the breed of asses has, by care and attention, become the finest in the world: they are large, strong, elegant, and stately animals; and are often found to rise to fifteen hands high. The best of them sell sometimes for a hundred guineas each, or upwards. This shews that the ass may, notwithstanding all our prejudices, and our generally contemptuous opinion of it, be rendered even an elegant, as well as an useful animal. The Romans had a breed which they held in such high estimation, that Pliny mentions one of the stallions selling for a price greater than three thousand pounds of our money; and he says that in Celtiberia, a province in Spain, a she-ass has brought colts which were bought for nearly the same sum. And Varro speaks of an ass that was sold in his own time in Rome for near five hundred pounds. Egypt and Arabia also excel us in asses as they do in horses. Some of these are of great size and elegance, and sell occasionally for higher prices than even the horses. In their attitudes and movements there is a degree of gracefulness, and in their carriage a nobleness unknown even in those of Spain. Their foot is sure, their step light, and their paces quick, brisk, and easy. They are not only in common use for riding on in Egypt, but they were not long ago the only animals on which the Christians of any country were allowed to appear in the capital. The Mahometan merchants, the most opulent of the inhabitants, and even ladies of the highest rank, used them.

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BINGLEY.

4763. [8] When Captain Cook first approached the island of Otaheite, he was met and welcomed by several canoes; each of which had in it young plantains, and branches of trees, as tokens of peace and friendship.

MAVOR.

4764. [- 12.] The antient bankers were called argentarii, and nummularii; and by the Greeks trapezetai, kollubistai, and arguromoiboi. Their chief business was to put out the money of private persons to interest; they had their boards and benches for this purpose in all the markets and public places, where they took in the money from some to lend it to others.

4765. [

REES.

19. And when he saw a fig-tree in the way, he came to it, and found nothing thereon but leaves only, and said to it, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever. And presently the fig-tree withered away] He did this as a prophet for a sign of what he should do at Jerusalein.

Every tree in the ordinary course of its growth generates, in each season, those buds which expaud in the suceeeding spring; and the buas thus generated, contain, in many instances, the whole of the leaves which appear in the following summer. But if these buds be destroyed during the winter or early part of the spring, other buds, in many species of trees, are generated, which in every respect perform the office of those which previously existed, except that they never afford fruit or blossoms.

1766.

T. A. KNIGHT, Esq. Phil. Trans. 1805, p. 257.

They have in Egypt divers sorts of figs; but if there be any difference between them, it is in a particular kind which the sycamore bears, that they name in Arabic, giomez-the mulberry-leaved fig-trec. It was a tree of this sort, that Zaccheus climbed up into, to see our Saviour pass through Jericho. This sycamore is of the height of a beech, and bears its fruit in a manner quite different from other trees. It has them on the trunk itself, which shoots out

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little sprigs in form of a grape-stalk, at the end of which grows the fruit, close one to another, most like bunches of grapes. The tree is always green, and bears fruit several times in the year, without observing any certain seasons; some of these sycamores having fruit two months after others. -The common people in general live on this fruit.

NORDEN, Travels in Egypt, vol. i. p. 79.

4767. [Matt. xxi. 20.] On rubbing a living plant with oil, we cause its almost immediate death.

4769.

St. PIERRE'S Harmonies of Nature, vol. i. p. 380.

As those insects which have many spiracula, or breathing apertures, as wasps and flies, are immediately suffocated by pouring oil upon them; in the year 1783, says Dr. DARWIN, I carefully covered with oil the surfaces of several leaves of phlomis, or Portugal laurel, and balsams; and though it would not regularly adhere, I found them all die in a day or two, which shews another similitude between the lungs of animals and the leaves of vegetables. Phytologia, sect. iv. i. 4.

4769. [21.] For an account of the Fata Morgana, see vol. i. of the quarto series of NICHOLSON'S Journal, or the optics in CAVALLO'S Natural Philosophy. - See also on Rev. xxi. 2. Acts x. 11 — 16.

As Dr. A. P. BUCHAN was walking on the cliff about a mile to the eastward of Brighthelmstone, on the morning of the 28th November 1804, while watching the rising of the sun, he turned his eyes directly towards the sea just as the solar disc emerged from the surface of the water, and saw the face of the cliff on which he was standing, represented precisely opposite to him at some distance on the ocean. The Doctor called the attention of his companion to this appearance, and they soon discerned their own figures standing on the summit of the apparent opposite cliff, as well as the representation of a windmill near at hand. The reflected images were most distinct precisely opposite to where they stood, and the false cliff seemed to face away, and to draw near to the real one, in proportion as it receded towards the west. This phenomenon lasted about ten minutes, or till the sun had risen nearly bis own diameter above the surface of the ocean. The whole seemed to be elevated into the air, as it successively disappeared. The surface of the sea was, at 'the time, covered with a dense fog, of many yards in height, and which gradually receded before the rays of the sun.

4770.

NICHOLSON'S Phil. Jour. n. ¿8

The Mountains of South America are sup

posed to be nearly twice the height of the highest in the antient hemisphere, and even under the equator, have their tops involved in everlasting snow. To those massive piles the loftiest summits of the most elevated of the West India islands cannot indeed be compared; but some of these rise nevertheless in amazing grandeur, aud are among the first objects that fix the attention of the voyager. Those of Hispaniola in particular, whose wavy ridges are descried from sea at the distance of thirty leagues, towering far above the clouds in stupendous magnificence, and the blue mountains of Jamaica, have never yet, that I have heard, been fully explored. Neither curiosity nor avarice has hitherto ventured to invade the topmost of those lofty regions. In such of them as are accessible, Nature is found to have put on the appearance of a new creation. As the climate changes, the trees, the birds, and the insects, are seen also to differ from those which are met with below. To an unaccustomed spectator, looking down from those heights, the whole scene appears like enchantment. The first object which catches the eye at the dawn of day, is a vast expause of vapor, covering the whole face of the valleys. Its boundaries being perfectly distinct, and visibly circumscribed, it has the exact resemblance of an immense body of water, while the mountains appear like so many Islands in the midst of a beautiful lake. As the sun increases in force, the prospect varies, the incumbent vapors fly upward and melt into air; disclosing all the beauties of nature, and the triumphs of industry, heightened and embellished by the full blaze of a tropical sun. In the equatorial season, scenes of still greater magnificence frequently present themselves; for, while all is calm and serene in the high regions, the clouds are seen below sweeping along the sides of the mountains in vast bodies; till growing more ponderous by accumulation, they fall at length in torrents of water on the plaius. The sound of the trumpet is distinctly heard by the spectator above; the distant lightning is seen to irradiate the loom; while the thunder, reverberated in a thousand echoes, rolls far beneath his feet.

BRYAN EDWARDS.

4771. [Matt. xxi. 21.] Near the Peninsula of Aden, Mr. SALT was much struck, he says, with the singular appear- ́ ances which the suu put on as it rose. When elevated about half-way above the horizon, its form somewhat resembled a casteliated dome: when three parts above the horizon, its shape appeared like that of a balloon; and at length the lower limb, suddenly starting up from the horizon, it assumed the general form of a globe fattened at the axis. These sin. gular changes be attributed to the refraction produced by the different layers of atmosphere through which the sun was viewed in its progress. The same cause made the ship in the bay, look as if it had been lifted out of the water, and her bare masts seemed to be crowded with sail; a low rock also appeared to rise up like a vessel, and a projecting point of land to rest on no other foundation than the air; the space between these objects and the horizon having a gray

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4775. [34] The fruit of all manner of trees for the first three years was not to be eaten, nor any profit made of it: in the fourth year it was to be holy, to praise the Lord with; being either given to the prests, or eaten by the owners before the Lord at Jerusalem: in the fifth year it might be eaten and made use of for profit, and thenceforward every year. To this time of fruit, and the custom of bringing it up to Jerusalem, there seems to be an allusion here. GILL, in loco.

4776. [ 44.] Whoever falleth on this stone in the flesh, as the Jews and Romans did, shall be broken, or divided as the Jews and Romans were afterwards: but on whomsoever it shall fall in judgment, as the influence of the glorified Christ did on the Jews, it will grind him to powder, causing an utter dispersion of that people.

4781. [—————— 11. A wedding garment] provided by the Redeemer, when he combined the Divine Spirit with all that is good and true amongst men; or rather, he had not received from without that good and truth with which the Lord could conjoin his spirit.

4782. [ 1113.] There are some who, in the lite of the body, are so principled in deceit, that they can feign themselves angels of light; and whilst they are in such a hypocritical state in the other life, they can also insinuate themselves into neighbouring heavenly societies. But they

do not long continue there; for the instant they perceive the sphere of mutual love there n, they are seized with fear and horror, and cast themselves head.ong thence. It then appears in the world of spirits as if they were cast down by others; some towards a lake, some towards Gehenna, and some towards another kind of hell.

SWEDENBORG, Arcana, n. 2132.

4777.

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Beneath the world of spirits, under the left foot of the Grand Man in the spiritual Heavens, there is a kind of cloudy Rock with which they are covered, who were of old call d Nephilim, as being in direful phantasies and When poisonous persuasions, that they themselves are gods. they rise to the world of spirits, those they can infold within their spheres. app ar to be tuuled downwards through the declivity of the rock, while they themselves are cast beneath its dark caverns into their appropriate hell.

SWEDENBORG, Arcana, nn. 1266 - - 1270.

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those garments which the king had sent them. The ambassadors at first made some scruple of that compliance: but when they were told it was a custom observed by all ambassadors, and that no doubt the king would take it very ill at their hands, if they presented themselves before him, without the marks of his liberality, they at last resolved to do it, and after their example, all the rest of the retinue.

Ambassadors' Trav. into Persia, p. 288. Burder. CHARDIN relates also an instance of iniquity in an officer of the court, who, to be revenged on an absent enemy, sent him, instead of a royal calate, a plain habit. The Vizier, not daring to return into the city in that habit, and fearing lest the people should despise him, if they saw him so ill dressed at the king's expense, as one who had lost his reputation at court, sent home for a royal habit, one of the richest and most magnificent that the late king had sent him, and made his public entry in that. This being known to all the court, they declared the Vizier was a dog; that he had disdainfully thrown away the royal habit, with reproachful language, saying, "I have no need of Scha Sefi's habits." Their account incensed the king, who severely felt the affront; and it cost the Vizier his life. (Coronation of Soliman.) Apply this idea to the explanation of Rom. xiii. 14. Eph. iv. 24. Col. iii. 10.

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We find also in Chardin, remarks FORBES, that the kings of Persia had (for such occasions) great wardrobes, where there were always many hundred habits, sorted, ready for presents; aud that the intendant of the wardrobe sent them to those persons for whom they were designed by the sovereign.

Orient. Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 13.

denarius (value seven pence halfpenny), the sum, it would appear, which every Jew living in Palestine then paid of poll-tax. But such a denarius, with Cesar's image and superscription, would not even have been accepted, in payment of the half-shekel in the Temple, where shekels of the sanctuary were demanded; and for these, the Jew, if the money he had were foreign, was obliged to exchange: for which purpose, within the Temple itself, there generally sat those exchangers, whose tables, we are told that Jesus twice overturned. The most proper reply, therefore, to these captious Pharisees, would be, what was given, to this effect: Ye see that the emperor demands not from you the polltax that you are wont to pay to the temple. He demands but a denarius, which would not so much as be taken in the temple. Ye may therefore in all good conscience pay to the emperor this annual poll-tax, in imperial coin with his own image and superscription; and in like manner, to God, in sacred coin, the sum double the former, destined for the support of the temple. See Smith's MICHAELIS, vol. iii. p. 18.

4787. [Matt. xxii. 20.] The coins of Yemen, like those of Turkey, Persia, and India, have only an inscription, but no figure. NIEBUHR, p. 190.

The Turks stamp nothing on their money but the emperor's name, and the year in which it was coined. They receive nevertheless foreign coins with figures of living things, which seems contrary to law. De la MOTRAYE's Trav. vol. i. p. 154.

4784. [Matt. xxii. 11, 12.] The clothes, or rather coverings, of the first ages, were not fitted to the body as at present; but all loose, and nearly of an equal size; a circumstance strongly proved by the many changes of raiment which were in the possession of the great, and of which they made presents to such as they were inclined to honour, and in which they used to clothe the guests who came to visit them.

Dr. W. ALEXANDER's Hist. of Women, vol. ii. p. 89.

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4789. [ 23.] The Sadducees openly denying a resurrection, did better than those at this day, who profess not to deny, because it is an article of faith, and yet deny in their hearts; so that they profess contrary to what they believe, and believe contrary to what they profess. But lest they should any longer confirm themselves in that false opinion, it has been granted me, says E. SWLDENBORG, by the Divine Mercy of the Lord, during my abode in this world in the body, to be in the spirit in the other life (for man is a spirit clothed with a body); and there to discourse with souls, who have risen again, not long after their decease; yes, with almost all those, with whom I was acquainted in the life of the body, who have died; and also daily now for some years with spirits and angels; and to see there stupendous sights,

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