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there. In consequence of this, his friends tried to persuade him not to go.

XXI.-24. "Take them, and purify thyself with them, and be at charges with them." The better to understand what is said in this passage, it may be observed, that among the Jews it was accounted meritorious to contribute to the expences of the sacrifices and offerings, which those who had taken upon them a vow of nazaritism were to make when the time of their vow came to be accomplished. Thus Josephus, to magnify the zeal and devotion of Herod Agrippa, tells us, that he caused several nazarites to be shaved, whereby he means, that he bore the expense of the whole ceremony; and Maimonides informs us, that he who would partake of the merits of another man's nazaritism, went to the temple, and said to the priest, "such a one will finish his vow, and I intend to defray the charge of his tonsure, either in part or in whole," and whoever did so, was reputed to partake in the merits of him who had fulfilled his vow.See Burder's Oriental Customs, vol. i. page 347.

XXI. 33. "And commanded him to be bound with two chains." Prisoners among the Romans were fettered and confined in a singular manner. One end of a chain, which was of a commodious length, was fixed about the right arm of the prisoner, and the other about the left arm of a soldier. Thus a soldier was coupled to the prisoner, and every where attended him. To this Manilius alludes :

Vinctorum dominus, sociusque in parte catenæ,
Interdum poenis innoxia corpora servat.

Lib. v.

In this manner was St. Paul confined when he made his incomparable apology before Festus. Sometimes the prisoner was fastened to two soldiers, one on each side. Acts xii 6. -Burder's Oriental Customs, vol. ii. page 359.

XXI.38.

"Art not thou that Egyptian which before these days madest an uproar, and leddest out into the wilderness four thousand men that were murderers." The Sicarii, noticed in Acts xxi. 38. were assassins, who derived their name from their using poniards bent like the Roman sice, which they concealed under their garments, and privately stabbed the objects of their malice. The Egyptian impostor, also mentioned by the sacred historian, is noticed by Josephus, who says, that he was at the head of 30,000 men, though St. Luke notices only 4000; but both accounts are reconciled by supposing that, the impostor (who in the second year of Nero pretended to be a prophet) led out 4000 from Jerusalem, who were afterwards joined by others to the amount of 30,000, as related by Josephus. They were attacked and dispersed by the Roman procurator Felix.→ Horne's Introduction, vol. iii. page 371.

XXII.-22. "And they gave him audience unto this word." The rejection of Christianity by the Jews, has, by infidels, generally been considered a strong objection to it. The opposition of the Jews, however, ought to be considered as primarily pertaining to the Gentiles, and not to Christianity. It is more than probable, that, if the Gospel had been offered to the Jews exclusively, they would have em braced it.

XXII. -25. "Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman and uncondemned ?" the Valerian law forbade that a Roman citizen should be bound; and the Sempronian, that he should be beaten with rods.--Ostervald.

XXII. 27. "Then the chief captain came and said unto him, Tell me, art thou a Roman? He said, Yea." The circumstance here to be noticed, says Paley in his Evidences, is, that a Jew was a Roman citizen. Josephus, Antiquities, lib. xiv. c. x. sect. 13. "Lucius Lentulus, the consul, declared, I have dismissed from the service the Jewish Roman

citizens, who observe the rites of the Jewish religion at Ephesus."

XXIII.-5. "I wist not, brethren, that he was the high priest." The high priest might appear then, as was sometimes the case, not in his peculiar dress, but in the ordinary dress of the priests. Hence, St. Paul might not know him. Ananias, according to Michaelis c. xi. sect. ii. was not, properly, the high priest. He had been deposed, and his successor having been murdered, he officiated, in the vacancy, on his own authority.

XXIII.- -8. "For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection." If the Greek word here, and at St. Matthew xxii. 23. as well as in other places, really meant resurrection according to the general notion, our Lord's answer to the Sadducees recorded at St. Matthew xxii. 32. would not be a satisfactory one; since it merely proves the future existence of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That which the Sadducees denied was, however, a future state of existence. The primary meaning of the Greek word here rendered resurrection, is, to stand up or to stand again. The subject of the 1 Cor. xv. is the future existence of man; which, as the greater contains the less, the great Apostle of the Gentiles endeavours to prove by showing that Christ was risen from the dead. The appropriate word for resurrection may be seen in the Greek of St. Matthew xxvii. 52. 53. which is properly rendered resurrection in our translation. Those who wish to see more on this subject may consult the Introduction of the 165th Sermon of that pious, penetrating, and incomparable divine, Dr. Dwight.

XXIV.- -24. "When Felix came with his wife Drusilla which was a Jewess." "Agrippa gave his sister Drusilla in marriage to Azizus, king of the Emesenes, when he had consented to be circumcised. But this marriage of Drusilla with Azizus was dissolved in a short time after, in this manner:

P

When Felix was procurator of Judæa, having had a sight of her, he was mightily taken with her. She was induced to transgress the laws of her country, and marry Felix." Josephus, Antiq. lib. xx. c. 6. sect. 1. 2. Here," says Paley, "the public station of Felix, the name of his wife, and the singular circumstance of her religion, all appear in perfect conformity with the Evangelist."

XXV.-13.

"King Agrippa and Bernice." Bernice was Agrippa's sister. Her infamous character is well known in Roman history: she is supposed to have lived criminally with her brother. Juvenal, probably, alludes to them in Sat. vi. 1. 157; since, in speaking of a precious gem worn by Bernice, he says:

Barbarus incestæ, dedit, hunc Agrippa sorori.

XXV. 19. "Of their own superstition". The word superstition, is here to be understood in a good sense, and signifying religion. The heathens called the Jewish religion by the name of superstition: Quintilian calls Moses Judaicæ superstitionis auctorem.

XXVI.-11. "And compelled them to blaspheme." There is a passage in Pliny's Epistles (book x. epistle 94.) which proves that heathen persecutors obliged christians that fell under the trial, not only to renounce Christ, but also to curse him; and it appears, hence, that the Jews imposed the like test upon them.-Doddridge.

XXVIII. 11. "Whose sign was Castor and Pollux." From this circumstance of adorning the heads and sterns of their ships with the images of their gods, it is not improbable that the vessel in which Europa was carried away, had the sign of a bull, which gave occasion to the poets to say, that Jupiter carried her away under that shape.-See Horne, vol. iii. page 352.

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ROMANS.

I.-4. "The spirit of holiness." The abstract, holiness,. is here used for the concrete holy. The expression, therefore, is, virtually, the holy spirit.

I.-28. "A reprobate mind." The Greek word, here rendered reprobate, in its primary signification, is applied to metals or coins, which, not standing the test of purity, are rejected. In Ulpian we find the expressions reprobi nummi et reproba pecunia, that which is not sterling, so that the Greek word in question and reprobus correspond to each other both in their original and derived senses. The same Greek word occurs frequently in the New Testament, in its positive signification, and always bears a sense opposite to that of rejected; it is six times translated approved, and once tried. See Valpy's Greek Testament.

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I. 32. Knowing the judgment of God." Just sentence or decree; i. e. "that they which commit such things are worthy of death.”

II.2. "According to truth." According to right and equity. Ostervald.

II. -4. "Not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance." Mr. Horne in his Introd. vol. ii. p. 646. in speaking of the prophetic use of the present, or past tense for the future, says: "This change of tense, however, is not exclusively confined to predictions of future events: it is sometimes used by the prophets to represent duties as performed which ought to be done: thus in Mal. i. 6. A son honours (ought to honour) his father. But it is more frequently employed by the writers of the New Testament to

express both our Christian privileges, and duties to which they oblige us. Thus, Matt. v. 13. Rom. ii. 4. The good

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