1 No. 1374.-iii. 3. And of wearing of gold.] The Jewish women used to wear a crown of gold on their heads in the form of the city of Jerusalem, called a golden city; this they wore after its destruction in memory of it. They might not go out with it on the sabbath-day. The apostle here means to discourage whatever was excessive and extravagant. GILL, in loc. No. 1375.-iii. 18. For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust.] The notion of the victim's being substituted to suffer death and be consumed in the room of the transgressor for whom it was offered, is very ancient, and was commonly received among Gentiles and Jews, as well as Christians. Thus Ovid supposes the sacrificed animal to be a vicarious substitute, the several parts of which were given as equivalents for what was due by the offerers. Cor pro corde, precor; pro fibra sumite fibras ; FAST. 1. 6. No. 1376.-—iv. 3. For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries.] Much of the distinguishing spirit of this passage is lost when it is understood as descriptive of the immoralities of common life, and not as giving an account of the polluted nature of what the heathens called sacred transactions. The first word here used, lasciviousness, refers to lewd practices: the second, lusts, to irritation of voluptuous desire: the third, Oλ, translated excess of wine, seems to mean buffoonery through drinking too much wine: the other two words revellings and banquetings, mean riotous and excessive eating and drinking. "You An extract from Maillet. (Lett. x. p. 59.) will illustrate the ridiculous buffoonery here alluded to. can hardly imagine how many traces of this ancient religion are still met with in Egypt, which have subsisted there for many ages. In fact, without speaking of their passion for pilgrimages, which, notwithstanding its having changed its object, is nevertheless the same; the modern Egyptians have still the same taste for processions that was remarked in their ancestors. There is perhaps no country in the world, where they are more frequent than they are here. All the difference that I find in the matter is, that the ancients practised them in honour of their idols, and that the Egyptians of our days perform them in honour of their santons or saints, who are not much better. As to what remains, there is no regularity in these ceremonies, neither in their way of walking, nor in their vestments: every one dresses himself as he likes; but those that are in the most grotesque and most ridiculous habits are always most esteemed. Some dance ; others caper; some shout. In one word, the great point is, who shall commit most follies in these extravagant masquerades. The more they do, the more they believe themselves possessed by the spirit of their prophet." HARMER, vol. iv. p. 384. No. 1377.-1 JOHN iii. 17. Bowels of compassion. THE inhabitants of Otaheite have an expression that corresponds exactly with this phraseology. They use it on all occasions when the passions give them uneasiness; they constantly refer pain from grief, anxious desire, and other affections, to the bowels as their seat, where they likewise suppose all operations of the mind to be performed. Cook's Voyage to the Pacific Ocean. 1 No. 1378.-JUDE, ver. 4. Who were before of old ordained to this condemnation. THOSE Who were summoned before courts of judicáture were said to be προγεγραμμενοι εἰς κρίσιν, because they were cited by posting up their names in some public place, and to these judgment was published or declared in writing. Such persons were by the Romans called proscriptos, or proscribed. They were doomed to die, with a reward offered to whoever would kill them. The persons spoken of by St. Jude were not only those who must give an account to God for their crimes, and are liable to his judgment, but, who, moreover, are destined to the punishment they deserve as victims of the divine anger. PARKHURST'S Greek Lex. p. 586. No. 1379. ver. 12. These are spots in your feasts of charity.] It is commonly supposed that St. Jude here refers to the primitive christian love-feasts. But Lightfoot and Whitby apprehend the allusion is rather to a custom of the Jews, who on the evening of the sabbath had their xova or communion, when the inhabitants of the same city met in a common place to eat together. If No. 1380.-vér. 23. Hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.] In all holy worship their clothes were to be without spots or stains, loose and unbound. they had been touched by a dead body, or struck by thunder, or any other way polluted, it was unlawful for the priest to officiate in them. The purity of the sacerdotal robes is frequently insisted on in the poets: Casta placent superis; purâ cum veste venito. POTTER'S Archæol. Græc. vol. i. p. 224. No. 1381.-REVELATION ii. 1. The angel of the church. NEXT to the chief ruler of the synagogue was an officer, whose province it was to offer up public prayer to God, for the whole congregation, and who on that account was called the angel of the church, because as their messenger he spake to God for them. Hence the pastors of the seven churches of Asia are called by a name borrowed from the synagogue. JENNINGS's Jewish Ant. vol. ii. p. 55. No. 1382.-ii. 10. I will give thee a crown of life.] A crown of life is promised to those who are faithful unto death as an everlasting reward for their fidelity. Dr. Gill considers it to be an allusion to the practice of some nations, who used to crown their dead. See Minut. Felix, p. 42. No. 1383.—iii. 5. The same shall be cloathed in white raiment.] The allusion seems to be to the custom of the Jewish sanhedrim in judging of priests fit for service. Maimonides says, "they examined the priests concerning their genealogies and blemishes: every priest in whom was found any thing faulty in his genealogy was clothed in black, and veiled in black, and so went out of the court: but every one that was found perfect and right was clothed in white, and went in and ministered with his brethren the priests." GILL, in loc. No. 1384.—iv. 1. After this I looked, and behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which 'I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me.] This |