5250. [John xiv. 2. To prepare a place for you] in the northern quarter, directly opposite the Noaich Heaven; that prison, or state of vastation, where had been successively all the spirits of disobedience to justice since the preaching of Noah. Where Jesus Christ by the light of His Spirit ever preaches away those that are disobedient to truth; and thus prepares a state of intermediate residence and rest for His own faithful and obedient children. See 1 Peter iii. 19, 20.

5251. [——————— 13.] The Moravians chiefly direct their hearers to Jesus Christ, as the appointed channel of the Deity, in whom God is known and made manifest to Man, in the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Dr. ROBINSON's Theological Dictionary.

5252. [—————— 18. I will not leave you orphans], who have lost your spiritual father and protector: - The soldiers

of Nadir Shah are obliged to keep yetims at their own expense. Yetim signifies an orphan: but these are considered as servants who, when their masters die or fall in battle, are ready to serve as soldiers.

HANWAY, Trav, in Persia, vol. i. p. 172.

6253. [— 19.] God is very wisdom, of which man is a partaker; and therefore, as God is immortal or eternal, so is man.

SWEDENBORG, on Divine Providence, n. 324.

5254. [21.] A man cannot love, and from love will from himself, in like manner as he can understand and think as from himself; just as he cannot from himself so act on the heart to make it move itself, as he can from himself act on the lungs to make them respire.

Ibid. on Divine Love, n. 385.

5257. [John xv. 17.] In the course of this conversation, our Lord gives a most beautiful illustration of experimental religion, and vital union with him, by comparing himself to a vine, of which his disciples are branches. This discourse happened, as I conceive, while Jesus was walking from the supper-chamber to Gethsemane, between the city and the brook Kedron (Compare chap. xiv. 31 and xviii. 1) where probably were many surrounding vineyards; — and, as it was now the 2d of April when the vines in Judea are pretty forward, and the tull moon, his disciples might, perhaps, admire the plantatious as they passed along. Jesus, ever ready to divert their minds from natural to spiritual objects, improves the subject; aud, in strict conformity to the imagery of the Jewish prophets, compares himself to a vine. "I am the true vine, — ye, the branches-my Father, the Husbandman. As branches are engrafted in the vine; so are ye by discipleship in Me. As the successful graft unites its sap with the stock, and abiding in the vine, brings forth fruit, so my true disciples, being united to me by divine grace, derive from me spiritual life, and bear the fruits of a holy conversation: but those who follow me by a barren profession only, are like that graft which, never properly uniting with the stock, withers, and becomes a dry stick, fit only for the fire. The living branches must be pruned, indeed, to continue and improve their bearing, but dead ones gathered for the flames." Such I suppose to be the import of this similitude, and the grand truth intended to be inculcated is, that all our spiritual life and holiness depend on Christ, "Without (or separate from)` ne ye can do nothing."

5261. [John xv. 5. I am the vine, ye are the branches] Here Christ, uses this similitude to teach us, that the new birth that we are to have from Him is real, in the most strict and literal sense of the words, and that there is the same nearness of relation, betwixt Him and his true disciples, that there is betwixt the vine and its branches, that He does all that in us, and for us, which the vine does to its branches. Now the life of the vine must be really derived into the bran ches, they cannot be branches, till the birth of the vine is brought forth in them. And therefore as sure as the birth of the vine must be brought forth in the branches, so sure is it, that we must be born again of Him. And unless the life of Christ be in us by a birth from Him, we are as dead to the kingdom of God, as the branch is dead to the vine, from which it is broken off.

LAW's Spirit of Prayer, p. 45.

Ministers; if any other insinuate truth, it gives birth to heresies, and the church is disturbed and rent asunder. SWEDENBORG, Arcana, n. 6822.

5267. [John xv. 16.] M. FEBURIER, a nursery man at Versailles, has observed in his experiments on trees, that the ascending sap, when it predominates, tends to determine the production of the simple flowers and the complete developement of the germs; that the descending sap on the contrary, where it is superabundant, produces the multiplication of the flowers and the petals, and the enlargement of the pericarps, and consequently of the pulpy part of the fruit. See Month. Mag. for July 1814, p. 530.

5262.

As Jesus Christ is the vine, and we the branches variously participating His common influence, it may be useful to consider in a tree "the difference between such shoots as produce nothing but leaves, and those that bear flowers and fruits. The latter are round and large; the former small and taper. One produces neither leaves nor wood: the other, no flowers nor their consequences. All these shoots must be ranged in the tree before the sap can come there. It nourishes indeed, and sustains what it finds already formed, but gives existence to nothing." See Rev. xxii. 11, 12. Nature Delineated, vol. i. p. 264.

5263. [ 6.] The conjunction kai (Grk.) is frequently in the New Testament to be rendered by the relative who or which.

See KNATCHBull.

5264. [12.] A day will come, and the present generation may flatter itself with beholding its dawn, when Europeans will teach their children to substitute a disposition to mutual assistance for the fatal ambition of taking a lead among their equals; and to consider that the interest of each is identified with the interest of all.

St. PIERRE'S Harmonies of Nature, vol. ii. p. 77.

5265. [15.] The disciples of Pythagoras being desired to define a friend, did it by calling him, Another self. See No. 3786. COWPER'S Iliad, vol. ii. p. 216.

5266. [16.] Good may be insinuated into another by any man but not truth, except by those who are teaching

5268. [John xvi. 2. Whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service] He who, led by superstitious zeal, "sticks not at supporting his folly by murder, is a fanatic. Bartholomew Diaz, a fugitive at Nuremberg, who was firmly convinced that the pope is the Autichrist in the Revelations, and that he has the mark of the beast, was only an enthusiast; whereas his brother, who set out for Rome with the godly intention of murdering him, and who actually did murder him for God's sake, was one of the most execrable fanatics that superstition could form.

"Polieuctes, who, on a pagan festival, went into the tem ple, pulling down and breaking the images and other oruaments, shewed himself a fanatic, less horrible, indeed, than Diaz, but equally rash and imprudent. The murderers of Francis duke of Guise, of William prince of Orange, of the kings Henry III. and Henry IV. and of so many others, were demoniacs, agitated by the same evil spirit as Diaz.

"The most detestable instance of fanatic zeal is that of the citizens of Paris, who on the feast of St. Bartholomew could massacre their fellow-citizens for not going to mass.

"Some are fanatics in cool blood: these are the judges who can sentence people to death without any other guilt than for not being of their way of thinking: these judges are the more guilty, and the more deserving of universal execration, as not being under a fit of rage like the Clements, the Chatels, the Ravaillacs, the Gerards, the Damiens. One would think they might listen to reason.

"When once this kind of zeal has touched the brain, the distemper is desperate. I have seen Convulsionists, who, in speaking of the miracles of St. Paris, grew hot involuntarily their eyes glared, they trembled in all their limbs, their countenance was quite disfigured with rancour, and they unquestionably would have killed any one who had contradicted them.

"As to our holy religion having been so often corrupted by these infernal impulses, it is the folly of men that is to be blamed."

VOLTAIRE.

5270.-

In the year 1604, the Romish clergy in an assembly at Presburg, without the consent or knowledge of the nobility, published a decree, condemning those of the Reformed religion in Hungary either to be burned, or to suffer perpetual banishment. Against this decree the states of that kingdom made their protest; and declared, that they would defend themselves by arms, in case they should be molested on account of their religion. Notwithstanding all this, Beligiosa, Basta's lieutenant, seized not only the churches. but lands and effects of the Reformed at Kassovia. He forbad them also the use of the Bible, or to have sermons in their own houses; and would not suffer them to bury their dead in the city near monasteries.

Modern Univer. Hist. vol. xii. p. 431.

5273. [John xvii. 21-23.] Organic bodies, besides the carbon, hydrogen, azote, and the oxygen and heat, which are combined with them, require to be also immersed in loose heat and loose oxygen to preserve their mutable existence; and hence life only exists on or near the surface of the earth. DARWIN'S Temple of Nature, canto iv. 1. 381.

See No. 1255, 1259, 1256, 1257, 1260, 1261.

See No. 815, 1120.

5271. [John xvii. L] See 1 Peter i. 21.

Verse 6.] The will's love, which is the mind's first degree, is not known but in the understanding's wisdom, which is the mind's second degree; and there only by a certain delight in the thought of a thing. Neither is the first degree, which, as was said, is the will's love, known in the memory's science, which is the third degree, except by a certain pleasure in knowing and speaking.

See No. 1256.

5272. [

21

SWEDENBORG, on Divine Love, n. 278.

23.] Some microscopes are of so high a power as to make objects appear six thousand times larger than they are. Yet even that instrument cannot render an elementary particle of air or water perceptible to our eyes. How then should it enable us to perceive the fluid which surrounds the loadstone, and which attracts to it particles of iron from the distance of several inches? This magnetic fluid, moreover, acts incessantly around the loadstone, and undergoes to diminution from its uninterrupted communications. It attaches itself to all particles of iron which come in contact with it, and confers on them a similar virtue.

If this magnetic fluid is a corporeal substance, how does it happen to be invisible and intangible like a spirit? And if it is a spirit, how has it the power of attaching itself to bodies, and making them move? Its existence is sufficient to shew that there are principles of movement which are active in themselves and are united to bodies, while they elude the observation of any of our senses, and even our reasonings. Why should there not, likewise, be principles of life and

5274. [John xviii. 6.] A certain German, having an artificial Magnet suspended from the wall of his study with a piece of iron adhering to it, remarked, for several years, that the flies in the room, though they frequently placed themselves on the other iron articles, never settled on the magnet; and even that, if any of these insects approached it, tuey in a moment again removed from it to some distance Was not this caused by the sphere of the Magnet, operating perhaps as a strong offensive tide upon them?

5278. [John xviii. 37.] In the sacred Scriptures, man bears witness to the truth; not the truth, to man. Thus the facts recorded respecting Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the Prophets, the, Apostles, &c. display the effects of those Divine Influences under which they respectively stood; not any supposed goodness and wisdom merely human, or peculiarly their

own.

of two distinct pieces sewed together at the shoulders and sides, but was one entire long garment, woven throughout. (JOSEPHUS, Antiq. b. iii. c. 7. § 4.) — Jesus Christ, thus habited, appeared in character; as the High-priest in full dress, wore the Mehil of a purple color.

See Dr. A. CLARKE's Additions to Fleury,

p. 333.

5279. [John xix. 5.] The purple has been, almost every where, a mark of distinction attached to high birth and dignities. It was an ornament of the first offices of Rome; but luxury, which was carried to great excess in that capital of the world, rendered the use of it common among the opulent, till the emperors reserved to themselves the right of wearing it soon afterwards, it became the symbol of their inauguration.

BERTHOLLET'S Art of Dyeing, by Hamilton, vol. i.
P. xiii.

The reason why the robe Jesus had now on is here said to have been purple, elsewhere scarlet, may be seen on Matt. xxvii. 28; No. 4865, 5100.

5282. [John xix. 23.] At Wick in Scotland, says PENNANT, "lives a weaver who weaves a shirt, with buttons and button-holes entire without any seam, or the least use of the needle." Pinkerton's Coll. part ix. p. 86.

The High-priest's vesture was not composed of two pieces, nor was it sewed together on the shoulders and the sides, but it was one long vestment so woven as to have an aperture for the neck; not an oblique one, but parted all along the breast and the back.

JOSEPHUS, Antiq. b. iii, ch. vii. § 4.

5280. [—— 22.] Had Pilate altered this superscription on the cross, he must probably have altered it also in his account of Christ's crucifixion, which would be entered, immediately after sentence had been passed, in the records of his administration. This would have rendered its authenticity doubtful. The governors of the Roman provinces took care that every thing worthy of notice should be written on public tables, and properly preserved. Agreeably to this custom Pontius Pilate kept the memoirs of the Jewish affairs, which were therefore called Acta Pilati, the Acts of Pilate; and in which was given a PARTICULAR ACCOUNT OF CHRIST. To these memorials the primitive Christians appealed in their disputes with the Gentiles, as to a most undoubted testimony. Sce PEARSON, on the Creed, p. 198.

8th edit.

5281. [- 23.] The dress of a Jew consisted of an under and an upper garment: the former was named ketoneth (Hebr.), a vesture; the latter, mehil, a coat. The vesture was a long loose tunic and drawers, made of linen: this, in equipping the body for labor or for walking, was girded close round the loins. The coat was only a large piece of cloth, cut off the web unshaped and without scam.

Univer. Hist. vol. iii. p. 381. The Mehil reached down to the feet, and was not made

5286. [-34.] The Pericardium is the membranous bag that surrounds the heart, and whose use is to secrete and contain the vapor of the pericardium, which lubricates the heart, and thus prevents their connection with each other. This fluid being gradually collected after death, makes what is called liquor pericardii, which is found in cousiderable quantities in opening dead bodies while they remain fresh. Sometimes it is of a reddish color, which may be owing to the transudation of the red particles of blood through the fine membrane of the auricles.

Edinburgh Medical Dictionary.

5287. [ 38. Took the body] that he might bury it honourably; otherwise, by the Jewish customs, he would

have either been burned, or buried in the common place appointed for executed criminals. Dr. A. CLARKE, on Matt. xxvii. 58.

5288. [John xix. 39.] Bodies enclosed in wax, continue perfect for ages. Some gentlemen of the Society of Autiquaries being desirous to see how far the actual state of Edward the First's body answered to the methods taken to preserve it, by writs issued from time to time, in the reigns of Edward the Third and Henry the Fourth, to the Treasury, to renew the wax about it, obtained permission to inspect it. It was found entire, May 2d, 1774. The body must have been preserved above three centuries and a half, in` the state in which it was then found.

were still open, contrary to their state of ordinary subsistence with a finited soul. His Human Spirit, in union with the material body, was obscured and in its humiliation; in union with the Divine Spirit, it was exhibited in the resuscitated body as glorified and in its primary state of Divine exaltation.

5293. [John xxi. 3.] Among the Egyptians, a man sitting on the Lotos represents (perhaps, Jonas) the moving spirit (the sun), which, in like manner as the plant lives in the water without any communication with clay, exists equally distinct from matter, swimming in cmpty space, resting on itself; it is round also in all its parts like the leaves, the flowers, and the fruit of the Lotos.

Brama has the eyes of the Lotos, says Chaster Neadirser, to denote his intelligence: his eye swims over every thing, like the flowers of the Lotos on the waters.

-

VOLNEY'S Ruins, p. 364.

5294. [ 7.] Roman clothing was the most simple imaginable. The tunica or shirt was without collar and sleeves, girt high up under the breasts. The toga or gown was a wide and long garment open at both ends, and let down over the head: it was supported by the left hand thrust under the skirts of it, whilst the top of it rested on the left shoulder. The right hand and arm were naked, and above the gown; so that the gown was ungirt and always loose. In the first ages of the commonwealth they wore a toga or gown only; afterwards they put on next the skin a tunica or shirt, and never added more in the very splendour and luxury of the empire. When a Roman undressed himself, he had nothing to do but draw up his left hand, and the gown fell down at his feet; and at the same time to loose the girdle of the tunica, and to draw up both his arms from under the tunica, and that also fell at his feet. PINKERTON'S Coll. part xiv.

p. 11.