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VI.-16. "For they disfigure their faces." As the Arabic version renders it, "made them black." This they did that they might look so through fasting. Such persons were held in great esteem, and thought to be very religious. The Jews say "Whoever makes his face black on account of the law in this world, God will make his brightness to shine in the world to come."-Burder's Oriental Customs, vol. ii. page 298.

VI.-19. "Where men break through and steal." Or rather dig through: The following note illustrative of this is extracted from that incomparable work Horne's Introduction, &c. vol. iii: page 379. "The habitations of the rich were formed of stone or bricks, but the dwellings of the poor were formed of wood, or more frequently of mud as they are to this day in the East Indies; which material is but ill calculated to resist the effects of the impetuous torrents that descended from the mountains of Palestine. Our Lord alludes to this circumstance at the close of his sermon on the mount. Matt. vii. 26. 27. In the Indies also, nothing is more common than for thieves to dig or break through these mud-walls while the unsuspecting inhabitants are overcome by sleep, and to plunder them. To similar depredations Jesus Christ appears to allude, when he exhorts his disciples not to lay up their treasure where thieves break through and steal.

VI.-30. "The grass of the field, which is to-day, and to-morrow is cast into the oven." Shaw (Travels, page 85.) tells us, that myrtle, rosemary, and other plants, are made use of in Barbary to heat their ovens.-Burder's Oriental Customs, vol. i. page 266.

VII.2. "It shall be measured to you again." There is a difference of reading in many manuscripts and versions of very high authority, that is, "It shall be measured;" and not It shall be measured again." If the rule pertaining to

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Parallelisms, be applicable here, as some think, then the whole passage would read thus:

For with what judgement ye judge, ye shall be judged; And, with what measure ye meet, it shall be measured

to you.

Vide Horne, vol. ii. page 338.

VII.3. “The mote that is in thy brother's eye." The Greek word here rendered "mote," signifies, among other things, a small splinter or shaving of wood. Either of these agrees very well in comparison with a "beam."

VII.-6.“ Give not that which is holy unto the dogs." This verse constitutes what is termed an introverted parallelism, thus:

Give not that which is holy to the dogs;

Neither cast your pearls before swine;
Lest they trample them under their feet;

And turn about and rend you.

The following extract from Horne's Introduction, vol. ii. page 461, will make the sense of the passage perfectly clear: "Parallel lines introverted are stanzas so constructed, that, whatever be the number of lines, the first line shall be parallel with the last; the second with the penultimate or last but one; and so throughout, in an order that looks inward. Read the above verse, therefore, in this manner, and the sense will be evident. Thus :

Give not that which is holy to the dogs;
Lest they turn about and rend you:
Neither cast your pearls before the swine,
Lest they trample them under their feet.

VII.-13.

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-13. "Enter ye in at the strait gate." At the banquets of the antients, the guests entered by a gate designed

to receive them. Hence Christ, by whom we enter in to the marriage feast, compares himself to a gate. John x. 1, 2. 7.9. This gate on the coming of the guests was made narrow, the wicket only being left open, and the porter standing to prevent the unbidden from rushing in. When the guests were arrived, the door was shut, and not to be opened to those who stood and knocked without. So the parable of the ten virgins, Matt. xxv. 11. Again, our Lord here seems to allude to the private and public roads, whose measures are fixed by the Jewish canons, which say that a private way was four cubits broad; a way from city to city eight cubits; a public way sixteen cubits; and the way to the cities of refuge thirty-two cubits.-Burder's Oriental Customs, vol. i. page 267. and vol. ii. page 299.

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VII. 15. “Beware of false prophets." Christ here alludes to the clothing of the prophets, who used to cover their bodies with sheep-skins: meaning thereby those outsides of meekness and piety which the Pharisees affected to put on.Ostervald.

VII. 23. "I never knew you." This expression in the Scriptures, often denotes knowledge of approbation: see Psm. i. 6.

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VII.-25. "And the rain descended, and the floods came.' The rains descend in Palestine with great violence; and as whole villages in the East are constructed only with palm-branches, mud, and tiles baked in the sun, (perhaps corresponding to and explanatory of the untempered mortar noticed in Ezek. xiii. 11.) these rains not unfrequently dissolve the cement, such as it is, and the houses fall to the ground.— Horne's Introduction, vol. iii. page 30.

VII.-29. "For he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes." When the scribes delivered any thing to the people, they used to say, "our rabbins, or our wise men, say so," Such as were on the side of Hillel made

use of his name, and those who were on the side of Shammai made use of his. Scarcely ever would they venture to say any thing as of themselves. But Christ spake boldly, of himself, and did not go about to support his doctrine by the testimony of the elders.-Burder's O. Customs, vol. ii. page 299. VIII.-2. "And behold, there came a leper and worshipped him." Here we have a prominent example of the design of St. Matthew in writing his Gospel chiefly for the Jews. The leprosy was generally supposed by the Jews, to be inflicted from God as a punishment for some horrible crime. It does not appear that Moses prescribes any remedy for it, or that the Jews themselves applied any; but they looked to God alone for a cure. The power, therefore, to cure this dreadful disease, was a proof of the divine mission of him possessing it. Accordingly St. Matthew breaks in upon the order of our Lord's miracles by introducing to the notice of the Jews the cure of a leper. On the other hand, because the Gentiles sacrificed to devils, St. Luke introduces first to their notice a person possessed (Luke iv. 33.) to shew that Christ had power over those spirits.

VIII.-5. "There came unto him a centurion, beseeching him." According to the Hebrew style, a person is said to do a thing when he pronounces, esteems it to be, or causes it to be done. See those passages where God is said to harden Pharoah's heart, and compare them to that in Leviticus xiii. 3. On the present passage, see St. Luke vii. 6.

VIII.-12. "The children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness." This phrase, which is often used after the kingdom of heaven had been compared to a banquet, contains a beautiful allusion to the lustre of those illuminated rooms, in which such feasts were generally celebrated, as opposed to that darkness which surrounded those who by night were turned out. But it also, sometimes goes yet farther, when the persons excluded, are supposed to be thrown into a

to receive them. Hence Christ, by whom we enter in to the marriage feast, compares himself to a gate. John x. 1, 2. 7.9.This gate on the coming of the guests was made narrow, the wicket only being left open, and the porter standing to prevent the unbidden from rushing in.

When the guests were

arrived, the door was shut, and not to be opened to those who stood and knocked without. So the parable of the ten virgins, Matt. xxv. 11. Again, our Lord here seems to allude to the private and public roads, whose measures are fixed by the Jewish canons, which say that " a private way was four cubits broad; a way from city to city eight cubits; a public way: sixteen cubits; and the way to the cities of refuge thirty-two cubits.-Burder's Oriental Customs, vol. i. page 267. and vol. ii. page 299.

VII.-15. "Beware of false prophets." Christ here alludes to the clothing of the prophets, who used to cover their bodies with sheep-skins: meaning thereby those outsides of meekness and piety which the Pharisees affected to put on.Ostervald.

VII.—23. “I never knew you." This expression in the Scriptures, often denotes knowledge of approbation: see Psm. i. 6.

VII. 25. "And the rain descended, and the floods came." The rains descend in Palestine with great violence; and as whole villages in the East are constructed only with palm-branches, mud, and tiles baked in the sun, (perhaps corresponding to and explanatory of the untempered mortar noticed in Ezek. xiii. 11.) these rains not unfrequently dissolve the cement, such as it is, and the houses fall to the ground.Horne's Introduction, vol. iii. page 30.

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VII.-29. "For he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes." When the scribes delivered any thing to the people, they used to say, "our rabbins, or our wise men, say so," Such as were on the side of Hillel made

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