grief or joy visit each other with great attention, which is a tribute of duty always expected from persons of inferior condition, especially if they be dependent. The guests are ushered into a large room, and served with coffee and tobacco. After some time the master of the house enters, and his visitors, rising to receive him, continue standing till he has passed through the whole company and paid his respects to each: he then takes his seat, and by signs permits them to be also seated." GOLDSMITH'S Geography, p. 216. In the parable now referred to, the circumstances of which may reasonably be supposed conformable to existing customs, it is evidently implied that the guests were collected together previous to the appearance of the king, who came in to see the guests. So also in Luke xiv. 10. in a similar parable, it is said, when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest ROOM, that WHEN HE THAT BADE THEE COMETH, he may say unto thee, go up higher. This unquestionably confirms the application of the Persian ceremony to the parable first cited. It may just be further observed, that in the last mentioned passage it seems as if it had then been the prevailing practice for the master of the house "to pass through the guests and pay his respects to each of them," as was certainly the case in Persia.

No. 1202.-xxii. 11. A wedding-garment.] The following extract will shew the importance of having a suitable garment for a marriage-feast, and the offence taken against those who refuse it when presented as a gift. "The next day, Dec. 3, the king sent to invite the ambassadors to dine with him once more. The Mehemander told them, it was the custom that they should wear over their own clothes the best of those garments which the king had sent them. The ambassadors at first made some scruple of that compliance:

but when they were told that it was a custom observed by all ambassadors, and that no doubt the king would take it very ill at their hands if they presented themselves before him without the marks of his liberality, they at last resolved to do it; and, after their example, all the rest of the retinue." Ambassador's Travels, p. 188.

No. 1203.-xxii. 30. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage.] This declaration of Christ is directly contrary to the opinion and practice of some of the ancient idolaters, and particularly the Persians. From a notion that married people were peculiarly happy in a future state, they used often to hire persons to be espoused to such of their relations as had died in celibacy. Richardson's Dissert. on the East, p. 347.

No. 1204.-xxiii. 5. They make broad their phylacteries.] These were four sections of the law written on parchments folded up in the skin of a clean beast, and tied to the head and hand. The four sections were the following: Exod. xiii. 2-11. Exod. xiii. 11—17. Deut. vi. 4-10. Deut. xi. 13-22. Those that were for the head were written and rolled up separately, and put in four distinct places in one skin, which was fastened with strings to the crown of the head towards the face. Those that were for the hands were written in four columns on one parchment, which being rolled up, was fastened to the inside of the left arm between the shoulder and the elbow, that it might be overagainst the heart. GILL, in loc.

No. 1205.-xxiii. 6. And love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues.] Jarchi on this passage observes, that by the manner of sitting

it was known who was the greatest. With the Romans, the most honourable place was at the upper end of the table. Some think it was more honourable to sit in the middle: but the master of the feast sat at the lower end and to senior men, who were venerable with age or excelled in prudence and authority, the first sitting down and the more honourable place were given: and when the table was taken away, they used to rise first. (Alex. ab Alex. Genial. Dier. 1. 5. c. 21.) The middle place was the more honourable with the Numidians, (Sallust. Bell. Jugurth. p. 45.) and also with the Jews, and this was what the Pharisees sought for. The chief seats in the synagogues were so placed, that those who occupied them had their faces to the people; the Pharisees therefore coveted them, that they might be in full view of all who were present. GILL, in loc.

No. 1206. xxiii. 14. For a pretence make long prayers.] Maimonides says, "the ancient saints or good men used to stay an hour before prayer, and an hour after prayer, and held an hour in prayer." This being done three times a day, nine hours every day were spent in this manner. On this account they obtained the character of very devout men, and hereby covered all their oppression of the poor. GILL, in loc.

No. 1207.-xxiii. 15. Ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte.] This assertion is greatly illustrated by observing, that the zeal of the Jews in making proselytes, even at Rome, was so remarkable about this time, that it became almost proverbial among the Romans. Thus Horace:

veluti te

Judæi cogemus in hanc concedere turbam,

Lib, i. sat, 4. 1. 142.

We, like the Jews, will force you to our herd.

No. 1208.-xxiii. 27. Whited sepulchres.] The Jews used to mark their graves with white lime, that they might be known, that so priests, Nazarites, and travellers might avoid them, and not be polluted. Now because when the rains fell, these marks were washed away, on the first of Adar (February), when they used to repair the highways, they also marked the graves with white-lime; and so also on their intermediate feast-days. They made use of chalk, because it looked white like bones. GILL, in loc.

No. 1209.-xxiii. 38. Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.] "When any one buildeth a house, the rabbis say that he is to leave one part of it unfinished, and lying rude; and this in remembrance that Jerusalem and the temple are at present desolate and he must also use some expression of sorrow, as it is in Psalm cxxxvii. If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, &c. At least they use to leave about a yard square of the wall of the house unplastered, on which they write either the fore-mentioned verse of the Psalmist in great letters, or the words, The memory of the desolation."

Leo of Modena, p.5.

No. 1210.-xxiv. 17. Let him who is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house.] "It was not possible to view this country without calling to mind the wonderful events that have occurred in it at various periods from the earliest times: more particularly the sacred life and history of our Redeemer pressed foremost on our minds. One thing struck me in the form of the houses in the town now under our view, which served to corroborate the account of former travellers in this country, explaining several passages of scripture, particularly the following. In Matt. xxiv. 17. our blessed Saviour, in describing the

distresses which shortly would overwhelm the land of Judea, tells his disciples, "when the abomination of desolation is seen standing in the holy place, let him who is on the house-top not come down to take any thing out of his house, but fly," &c. The houses in this country are all flat-roofed, and communicate with each other: a person there might proceed to the city walls and escape into the country, without coming down into the street." Willyams's Voyage up the Me

diterranean.

Mr. Harmer endeavours to illustrate this passage, by referring to the eastern custom of the stair-case being on the outside of the house: but Mr. Willyams's representation seems to afford a more complete elucidation of the text.

No. 1211.-xxiv. 18. Neither let him who is in the field return back to take his clothes.] It was usual for them to work in the fields, ploughing and sowing, without their clothes. Hence Virgil:

Nudus ara, sere nudus, hyems ignava colono.

Georg. i. 299.

Plough naked, swain, and naked sow the land,

For lazy winter numbs the lab'ring hand. DRYDEN. It is reported of Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, (Aurel. Victor. de Illustr. Viris, c. 20.) that the messengers who were sent to him from Minutius the consul, whom he had delivered from a siege, found him ploughing naked beyond the Tiber. He was not entirely naked, but stripped of his upper garments.

No. 1212.-xxv. 1. Ten.] The number ten was much noticed and used by the Jews. A congregation with them consisted of ten persons, and less than that number did not make one: and wherever there were