punishment enjoined by Moses, was certainly in use before his time. It existed in Egypt (Gen. xl. 19.) and it is well known to have been inflicted under the princes of the Herodian family. Thus John the Baptist was beheaded by one of Herod's life-guards, who was dispatched to his prison for that purpose.-Horne, vol. iii. page 148.

XIV. 11. "And his head was brought in a charger." Similar instances of unfeeling barbarity are to be met with in history. Mark Antony caused the heads of those he had proscribed to be brought to him while he was at table, and entertained his eyes a long while with that sad spectacle. Cicero's head being one of those that was brought to him, he ordered it to be put on the very pulpit where Cicero had made speeches against him.-Burder's Oriental Customs, vol. ii.. page 303.

XIV.-20. "They took up of the fragments that re-. mained, twelve baskets full." Here the following question naturally suggests itself-How came they so readily to be furnished with baskets to such a number and in a desert place? It probably was a custom with the Jews to carry baskets with hay and straw, in commemoration of what they did in Egypt, when they were obliged to carry bricks in baskets, and to go about to pick up straw to make bricks, Martial calls a Jew cistifer, a basket bearer; and Juvenal says, Satir. ii. line 14. Judæis, quorum cophinus, foenumque supellex.

XIV. -25. "And in the fourth watch." The night was originally divided into three parts or watches, Psalm lxiii. 6. xc. 4. although the division of twelve hours like those of the day afterward obtained. The first or beginning of watches is mentioned in Sam. ii. 19. the middle watch in Jud. vii. 19. and the morning watch in Exod. xiv. 24. It is probable that these watches varied in length according to the seasons of the year: consequently, those who had a long and inclement

winter watch to encounter, would ardently desire the approach of morning light, to terminate their watch. This circumstance would beautifully illustrate the fervour of the psalmist's devotion Psalm cxxx. 6. as well as serve to explain other passages of the Old Testament. These three watches are also mentioned by various profane writers. During the time of our Saviour, the night was divided into four watches, a fourth watch having been introduced among the Jews from the Romans, who derived it from the Greeks. The second and third watches are mentioned in Luke xii. 38. the fourth in Matt. xiv. 25. and the four are all distinctly mentioned in Mark. xiii. 35.--Horne, vol. iii. page 162.

XV.-2. "For they wash not their hands when they eat bread." The Jews had two sorts of washing; one, of the whole body by immersion, which was used by the priests at their consecration, and by their proselytes at their initiation; the other, of the hands or feet, called dipping or pouring of water, and which was of daily use, not only for the hands and feet, but also for the cups and other vessels used at their meals. Matt. xv. 2. Mark vii. 3, 4. The six water pots of stone, used at the marriage feast of Cana, in Galilee, John ii. 6. were set for this purpose. To these two modes of purification Jesus Christ seems to allude in John xiii. 10. Sometimes the lustration was performed by sprinkling blood, or anointing with oil. Sprinkling was performed either with the finger or with a branch of cedar and hyssop tied together with scarlet wool. Levit. xiv. 4. 6. Numb. xix. 18. Psa. li. 7.-See Horne, vol. iii. page 265.

XV.- "But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, &c." Origen upon this passage says, that he should never have understood it, had it not been for the information he received from a Jew, who told him that it was the custom with some of their usurers, when they met with a tardy debtor, to transfer the debt to the poor's box; by which

means he was obliged to pay it, under the penalty of bringing upon himself the imputation of cruelty to the poor and impiety towards God; and that children would sometimes imitate this practice in their conduct towards their parents.-Burder's O. Customs, vol. ii. page 303.

XV.-19. "For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, &c." Juvenal, incidentally, has well defined our Lord's meaning :

Nam scelus intra se tacitum qui cogitat ullum,
Facti crimen habet.

Sat. xiii. 1. 209.

The wretch that but conceives a crime in thought,
Contracts the guilt e'en of an actual fault.

We have here a tenet of scripture purity, "that the heart is the seat of all true morality." Indeed the universal presence of the divine mind should be as great a restraint upon our inward conceptions, as the opinion of the world usually is upon our outward actions.-Owen's Translation of Juvenal.

XVI. 14. "And others Jeremias." The Jews had a tradition, that Jeremiah the prophet would appear among them, when the Messiah came, to recover the ark of the covenant which they fancied he had hid. 2 Maccabees ii. 5. Ostervald. XVI. 66 -18. Thou art Peter." The most eminent of the antient fathers as well as some of the early bishops or popes of Rome, particularly Gregory the Great, and likewise several of the most judicious modern commentators, respectively take this rock to be the profession of faith, which Peter had just made that Christ was the Son of God. The connection, however, shews that Peter is here plainly meant. Thou art Peter, says Christ, and upon this rock, that is, Peter, pointing to him; for thus it connects with the reason which follows for the name, in the same manner as the reason is given for that of Abraham in Gen. xvii. 5. and of Israel in

Gen. xxxii. 28. The Apostles are also called, in other parts of the New Testament, the foundation on which the church is built, as in Eph. ii. 20. Rev. xxi. 14. as being the persons employed in erecting the church, by preaching. It is here promised that Peter should commence the building of it by his preaching, which was fulfilled by his first converting the Jews, Acts ii. 14-42. and also the Gentiles, Acts x. xv. 7. This passage, therefore, gives no countenance to the papal supremacy, for this prerogative was personal and incommunicable.-Horne, vol. ii. page 567.

XVI.-19. "I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven." As stewards of a great family, especially of the royal household, bore a key, probably a golden one, in token of their office, the phrase of giving a person the key, naturally grew into an expression of raising him to great power (comp. Isaiah xxii. 22. with Rev. iii. 7.) This was with peculiar propriety applicable to the stewards of the mysteries of God. (1 Corin. iv. 1.) Peter's opening of the kingdom of heaven, as being the first that preached it both to the Jews and to the Gentiles, may be considered as an illustration of this promise; but it is more fully explained by the power of binding and loosing afterwards mentioned.Burder's Oriental Customs, vol. i. page 273.

Not that St. Peter, or any, or all the apostles, had power to let whom they pleased into heaven, but that they were commissioned to preach that doctrine, by the means of which men were to be admitted into, or excluded out of heaven.-Clark.

XVI.-23. "Get thee behind me, Satan." Satan, in Hebrew, properly signifies an adversary or calumniator; when, however, the great adversary of God and man is intended, the word is used emphatically or by way of emi

nence.

XVII.—1. "And after six days &c." St. Mark ix. 2. respecting this circumstance, agrees with St. Matthew. But

E

in St. Luke ix. 28. this is said to come to pass about an eight days after, which is perfectly consistent with what the other evangelists write. For St. Matthew and Mark speak exclusively, reckoning the six days between the time of our Saviour's discourse (which they are relating) and his transfiguration: but Luke includes the day on which he had that discourse, and the day of his transfiguration, and reckons them with the six intermediate days. A regard to this inclusive and exclusive mode of reckoning is of great importance, particularly as such customary mode of computation fairly requires it.-See Horne, vol. i. page 553.

XVII. 24. "They that received tribute money." This tribute, according to the Greek, was two drachmas, value about fifteen pence. This was the tribute which every Jew paid yearly for the use and service of the temple. The piece of money named at the 27th verse, was a stater, or four drachmas.

XVIII.-6. "It were better for him that a mill-stone were hung about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea." Grotius observes that the kind of punishment here alluded to was not used among the Jews, but that it was practised by the antient Syrians. Casaubon (upon the 67th chapter of Suetonius's Augustus) relates, that the tutor and ministers of Caius Cæsar, for taking the opportunity of his sickness and death, to infest and ruin the province by their pride and covetousness, were with a heavy weight put about their necks, thrown headlong into a river. It may be observed also that when the punishment of drowning was inflicted, the persons condemned were rolled up in sheets of lead, and so cast into the water.-Burder's Oriental Customs, vol. i. page 273.

To this custom of punishing by drowning, Josephus alludes, Antiq. b. xiv. c. xv. s. 10. In speaking of the success of Antigonus and the defeat of Herod, our historian says, "After which defeat, the Galileans revolted from their commanders,