5196. [19.] It is absolutely impossible to have any idea at all of power, any more than of any thing else, as it is in God; and for that reason, we frame our notion and conception of it from power in man. And thus we do also as to the attributes of wisdom and goodness in God, whereof it is absolutely impossible for us to have any other idea or conception than from those which are in man.- Because our conceptions are altogether finite, we can have no conception or idea of an infinite perfection, and therefore we ascribe the conceptions we have of our finite perfections to God, to express his infinite perfections which are similar and corres pondent.

Bp. BROWNE'S Divine Analogy, p. 146.

5197.[20.] Lightfoot observes from the Rabbins, that the treasury was in what was called the court of the women- that there were thirteen chests in it; in the thirteenth only the women were permitted to put their offerings.-Probably the other twelve were placed there in reference to the twelve tribes; each perhaps inscribed with the name of one of Jacob's twelve sons.

Dr. A. CLARKE, in loco.

5198. [ 36.] In Greece and elsewhere the son and heir had a liberty to adopt brethren, and give them the privileges of the family.

BURDER.

5199. [ 44.] Reasoning on evidence, is from God; reasoning without evidence, or on false evidence, is from the devil, - was man's first crime, and the cause of all error in all succeeding generations.

HUTCHINSON's Introduc. to Moses's Sine
Principio, p. lx.

5200. [56. My day] the light of eternal day, ever proceeding from Jesus Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, the express Image of the Father's glory in the intermediate state of departed souls. See Gen. xvii. 17.

5205. [ 6.] A certain man of the vulgar sort at Alexandria, well known for the decay of his eyes, kneeled down by Vespasian, and groaned, and begged of him the cure of his blindness, as by the admonition of Serapis, that god He which this superstitious nation worships above others. also desired that the Emperor would be pleased to put some of his spittle upon the balls of his eyes. Another infirin man there, who was lame of his hand, prayed Cesar as by the same god's suggestion, to tread upon him with his foot. — In the sight of the multitude, who stood in great expectation, Vespasian did what they desired him upon which the lame hand was recovered, and the blind man saw immediately. TACITUS'S Hist. l. v. c. 10. SUETONIUS in Vespasian, § 7. Dio, p. 217.

5201. [—— 57.] Calmet thinks that our Lord was crucified about the middle of his thirty-sixth year and

5207. The spring of Siloam, under the eastern walls of Jerusalem, discharged itself by, a double stream into

5209. “ On the 19th Sept.," says TuUNBERG, "we rode to Isaac Vissage's farm; the sheep here are counted morning and evening, viz. when they are turned out and brought home, and are marked in one or both ears, that they may be known again when they come to be mingled with others. The counting of the sheep was always the mistress's business, who had also given to each sheep a particular name. An excellent memory and daily practice had so sharpened her attention in this respect, that, if one amongst several hundred sheep were absent, she missed it immediately."

5210. name David.

See His Account of the Cape of Good Hope, in Pinkerton's Coll. part Ixiv. p. 84.

The sheep are called by an eastern Archeologia, vol. ii. p. 244.

5215.[22. The feast of the dedication] Enconia, by the Jews called Hanuca, signifies restoration or renewing. The dedication by Solomon was kept in the month Tisri, which is about our autumn; 1 Kings viii. 2. 2 Chron. v. 3. That by Zerubbabel in the month Adar, or the last month, which falls in the spring; Ezra vi. 15, &c. That by Judas Maccabeus, at which our Saviour now assisted, fell about the time of the winter solstice.

Univer. Hist. vol. 1. pp. 12, 13.

5216. [ — 27, 28.] If by any accident tamed horses are once more set at liberty, they never become wild again, but know their masters, and come to their call. Some of the buccaneers (natives of St. Domingo) have often been agreeably surprized, after a long absence, to see their faithful horses once more present themselves, with their usual assiduity; and come up, with fond submission, to receive the rein.

GOLDSMITH'S Hist. of the Earth, vol. ii. p. 345.

5219. [John x. 31.] The Roman judges antiently gave their opinions by calculi (small pebbles), which were white for absolution, and black for condemnation. Hence Calculus Albus, in antient writers, denotes a favourable vote, either in a person to be absolved and acquitted of a charge, or elected to some dignity or post; as Calculus Niger did the contrary. This usage is said to have been borrowed from the Thracians, who marked their happy or prosperous days by white, and their unhappy by black pebbles, put each night into an urn.

JOHNSON and EXLEY'S Encyclopedia.

5221. [35. Unto whom] The place referred to is Ps. lxxxii. 6, 7; I have said ye are gods, but ye shall die like men. So that, according to the most literal sense of our Lord's words, they should run thus: If they are called gods, against whom the word of God came forth-meaning in this sentence of death. Those who are acquainted with the Hebrew idiom, to which the evangelists were used, know, that the context must decide the meaning of those particles, which are capable of several even opposite significations, which the sense alone can determine.

Univer. Hist. vol. x. p. 315.

5222. [ 40.] Here commences the fourth year of our Lord's public ministry.

5224. John xi. 9.] The African ponga, a gigantic species of the ape kind, being observed to stale twelve times a day, and as many in the night, at equal intervals, in the time of the equinox; from this circumstance, we are told, the Egyptian priests took the first hint of their Clepsydra, or waterglasses, which were made to run just one hour; if not of dividing the natural day into twenty-four equal parts (which was only divided before into day and night watches, of two or three hours each), and which we are told, were invented by Ctesiphon of Alexandria, but were afterwards exchanged for the more sure and commodious sand-glasses; in commemoration of which they used to have the figure of that animal painted or carved on their hour-glasses.

FLORUS, PLINY, and KIRCHER. - See also
Modern Univer. Hist. vol. xiv. p. 88.

5225. [ -16.] Thomas, from thum (Heb.) a twin: whence thumb, a finger with two joints. Didymus, in Greek also signifies a turn. Natural knowledge analogically combined as the twin-brother of spiritual truth.

As both Greek and Hebrew, or Syriac, were commonly spoken in Palestine, most persons (spoken of in the New Testament) have two names, one Greek and the other Hebrew. Thus Peter was called Cephas in Hebrew, and Petros in Greek. Paul was called Saul in Hebrew, and Paulos in Greek. The female disciple at Joppa was called Tabitha in Hebrew, and Dorcas in Greek. And the paralytic cured by Peter, Hananiah in Hebrew, and Aineas in Greek. So Thomas was the Hebrew name of the apostle, who in Greek was called Didymus.

5226.

CALMET.

At Cranganore in Syria, the Apostle Thomas is said to have landed, when he first arrived in India from Aden in Arabia. At Paroor, where a Christian Church supposed to be the oldest in Malabar still bears his name, he resided for a time before he went to preach at Melapoor and St Thomas's Mount, on the coast of Coromandel, where he was put to death. We have as good authority for be lieving that this Apostle died in India, as that Peter died at Rome. Christian Researches in Asia, p. 134.

-

5223. [John xi. 9.] With the Jews, the hour was a twelfth part of the time which the sun continues above the horizon. As this time is longer in summer than in winter, their summerhours must therefore be longer than their winter ones. The first hour began at sun-rising, noon was the sixth, and the twelfth ended at sun-set. The third hour divided the space between sun-rising and noon; the ninth divided that which was between noon and sun-set.

Dr. A. CLARKE's Additions to Fleury, p. 290.

5227. [—— 17.] Ater a revolution of humors, which in seventy-two hours is completed, the body tends naturally to putrefaction.

STACKHOUSE'S Hist. of the Bible, vol. ii. p. 1386.

It was therefore ordained by law, says Rasis the Arabian physician, that no apoplectie, who had died foaming at the mouth, should be buried, till after seventy-two hours. Whence Quistorpius infers, that Jesus Christ did not resescitate Lazarus till he had been four days dead, lest the naturalist

might object that, as he was raised within the seventy-two hours, there might be no miracle in his apparent return to life.

sun-rising to the grave of the deceased, where they mourn, and sprinkle their monuments with water and flowers.

GILL, in loco.

See Sir NORTON KNATCHBULL'S Annotations.

5228. [John xi. 25.] As often as a current passes from a wider channel into a narrower, it forms on the sides two counter-currents.

St. PIERRE's Studies of Nature, Explanation of
Plates, p. 39.

Counter-currents have always a velocity equal to the principal current.

Letters of an American Farmer, vol. iii. p. 433. The Sea-currents from the North commence precisely at our vernal equinox, because the North Pole is then more elevated than the equator.

A general revolution of the Atmosphere and of the Ocean takes place at the Equinox, when the Sun passes from the on Hemisphere to the other.

Currents and Tides frequently carry vessels at the rate of three or four miles an hour; nay, in certain straits, they run with the rapidity of sluices, making from eight to ten leagues an hour, according to the testimony of ELLIS, of Linschoten and of Barents.

It is probable that Tides are caused by the diurnal revolution of the Earth, and Currents by the equinoxial elevation of its Poles; as the tides have refluxes equal to their flux of twelve hours, and the general Currents have refluxes equal to their flux of six months.

See No. 47. St. PIERRE's Studies of Nature, vol. iii. pp. 406-416, 427, 439, 442.

5233. [John xii, 13.] The kings, Samuri and Perumpadupil, were the only two of all the Indian princes who had a right, as a token of their unlimited power, to have carried before them the branch of a cocoa-nut (palm) tree, bound round with a bandage at the lower end, and quite free at the top. The petty Malabar kings used indeed a branch of the same kind; but it was necessary that it should be bound round at the upper as well as the lower end, in order to shew that they were subject to both these emperors.

BARTOLOMEO, by Johnston, p. 140.

5237. [John xii. 32.] As the magnet communicates its virtue to iron, so when armed or set in iron, it will take up a greater weight thereof than it cau alone.

5238.

SMITH'S Wonders of Nature and Art, vol. iii. p. 34.

The power of attraction may be divided into general attraction, which is called gravity; and into particular attraction, which is termed chemical affinity. As nothing can act where it does not exist, the power of gravity must be conceived as extending from the sun to the planets, occupying that immense space; and may therefore be considered as an ethereal fluid, though not cognizable by our senses like heat, light, and electricity.

Particular attraction, or chemical affinity, must likewise occupy the spaces between the particles of matter which they cause to approach each other. The power of gravity may therefore be called the general attractive ether, and the matter of heat may be called the general repulsive ether; which constitute the two great agents in the changes of inanimate

-5.] The Antients used to warm the water in which they washed the feet of their guests.

St. PIERRE's Studies of Nature, vol. iv. p. 91. At this season it was winter, and the weather cold. See John xviii. 18.

5249. [―30.] Scarcely any thing is more unbecoming than to see the majority of communicants as soon as they have received, posting out of the church or chapel, so that at the conclusion of the ordinance, very few are found to join together in a general thanksgiving to God for the benefits conferred. Judas, of all the disciples, went out before the Holy Supper was concluded! Reader, wilt thou go and do likewise? God forbid !

ADAM CLARKE, on the Eucharist, pp. 116, 117.