12. "Let him act this part who can act it," & duvάuevos ywoεîv zwoeiro. E. T. "He that is able to receive it, let him receive it." This expression is rather dark and indefinite. Xwoɛiv, amongst other things, signifies' to receive,' 'to admit,'' to be capable of. It is applied equally to things speculative, and, in that case, denotes to understand," to comprehend;' and to things practical, in which case it denotes to resolve,' and 'to execute.' Every body must perceive that the reference here is to the latter of

these.

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13. "Lay his hands upon them and pray." It appears to have been customary among the Jews, when one prayed for another who was present, to lay his hand upon the person's head.

17. "Why callest thou me good?” Tí μɛ kézɛis áɣaðóv; Vul. "Quid me interrogas de bono?" Five MSS. read, in conformity to the Vul. Τί με ἐρωτᾷς περὶ τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ; With this agree also the Cop. the Arm. the Sax. and the Eth. versions. This reading is likewise approved by Origen, and some other ancients after him, and also by some moderns amongst whom are Er. Gro. Mill, and Ben. The other reading is nevertheless, in my opinion, preferable on more accounts than one. Its evidence from MSS. is beyond comparison superior; the versions on both sides may nearly balance each other; but the internal evidence arising from the simplicity and connexion of the thoughts, is entirely in favor of the common reading. Nothing can be more pertinent than to say, 'If you believe that God alone is good, why do you call me so?" whereas nothing can appear less pertinent than 'If you believe that God alone is good, why do you consult me concerning the good that you must do ?'

"That life," nv wjv. Diss. X. Part v. sect. 2.

20. "The young man replied, All these I have observed from my childhood.” Λέγει αὐτῷ ὁ νεανίσκος, Πάντα ταῦτα ἐφυλαξάμην ἐκ νεότητός μου. E. T. "The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up." As he was a young man who made this reply, the import of veórns must be 'childhood,' as relating to an earlier stage of life, and is therefore badly. rendered youth.'

In

23. "It is difficult for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven." By kingdom of heaven is sometimes understood in this history the Christian church, then soon to be erected, and sometimes the state of the blest in heaven after the resurrection. regard to this declaration of our Lord, I take it to hold true, in which way soever the kingdom be understood. When it was only by means of persuasion that men were brought into a society, hated and persecuted by all the ruling powers of the earth, Jewish and Pagan; we may rest assured, that the opulent and the voluptuous, (characters which, in a dissolute age, commonly go together), who had so VOL. II.

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much to lose and so much to fear, would not, among the hearers of the gospel, be the most easily persuaded. The apostle James, 2: 5, 6, accordingly attests this to have been the fact; it was the poor in this world whom God hath chosen, rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom; whereas, they were "the rich in this world who oppressed them, dragged them before their tribunals, and blasphemed that worthy name by which they were called." As little can there be any doubt of the justness of the sentiment in relation to the state of the blessed hereafter, when the deceitfulness of riches, and the snare into which it often inveigles men, are duly considered. So close an analogy runs through all the divine dispensations, that, in more instances than this, it may be affirmed with truth that the declarations of Scripture are susceptible of either interpretation.

24. A camel," záunlov. The. observes that some explain the word as signifying here a cable.' A good authority, however, for this signification, though adopted by Cas. who says 'rudentem,' I have never seen. The frequency of the term, amongst all sorts of writers, for representing the beast so denominated, is undeniable. Besides, the camel being the largest animal they were acquainted with in Judea, its name was become proverbial for denoting any thing remarkably large, and a camel's passing through a needle's eye came, by consequence, as appears from some rabbinical writings, to express a thing absolutely impossible. Among the Babylonians, in whose country elephants were not uncommon, the phrase was an elephant's passing through a needle's eye; but the elephant was a stranger in Judea.

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2 To pass through the eye of a needle," dia τovяýμaros éαφίλος διελθεῖν. A great number of MSS. some of the most valuable, though neither the Al. nor the Cam. instead of diɛlvɛiv read sioλiv, enter.' Agreeable to this are both the Sy. the Cop. Eth. and Ara. versions. The Vul. and other versions follow the common reading. Should the external evidence appear balanced on both sides, the common reading is preferable, as yielding a better sense. Passing through a needle's eye is the circumstance in which the impossibility lies. There was no occasion for suggesting whither there is even something odd in the suggestion, which is very unlike the manner of this author. Wet. adopts the alter

ation.

:

28. "That at the renovation, when the Son of Man shall be seated on his glorious throne, ye, my followers, sitting also upon twelve thrones, shall judge,” ὅτι ὑμεῖς οἱ ἀκολουθήσαντες μοι, ἐν τῇ παλιγγενεσία, ὅταν καθίσῃ ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἐπὶ θρόνου δόξης αὐτοῦ, καθίσεσθε καὶ ὑμεῖς ἐπὶ δώδεκα θρόνους, κρίνοντες. Ε. Τ. "Ye which have followed me in the regeneration, when the Son of Man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye shall also sit upon twelve thrones, judging." In regard to which version, two things occur to

be observed: 1st, That ev yaliyyevesia (in which there is an ambiguity, as was remarked in Diss. XII. Part i. sect. 22), is rendered as though it belonged to the preceding clause ακολουθήσαντες uot, whereas the scope of the passage requires that it be construed with the clause which follows it. 2dly, That the word naleyyevεoía is, in this place, better translated renovation.' We are accustomed to apply the term regeneration solely to the conversion of individuals; whereas its relation here is to the general state of things. As they were wont to denominate the creation yéveois, a remarkable restoration, or renovation, of the face of things, was very suitably termed naliyyevɛoia. The return of the Israelites to their own land, after the Babylonish captivity, is so named by Josephus, the Jewish historian. What was said on verse 23, holds equally in regard to the promise we have here. The principal completion will be at the general resurrection, when there will be, in the most important sense, a renovation or regeneration of heaven and earth, when all things shall become new; yet, in a subordinate sense, it may be said to have been accomplished when God came to visit, in judgment, that guilty land; when the old dispensation was utterly abolished, and succeeded by the Christian dispensation, into which the Gentiles, from every quarter, as well as Jews, were called and admitted.

CHAPTER XX.

1. This chapter, in the original, begins, Quoia yao. The yao shows manifestly that what follows was spoken in illustration of the sentence with which the preceding chapter concludes, and which, therefore, ought not to have been disjoined from this parable. The Vul. has no particle answering to yao. In that version the chapter begins thus: "Simile est regnum cœlorum." But this does not seem to have sprung from a different reading, as there is no diversity here in the Gr. MSS. nor, for aught I can learn, in ancient translations. I rather think that the omission has happened after the division into chapters, and has arisen from a notion of the impropriety of beginning a chapter with the causal particle. It adds to the probability of this, that several old La. MSS. have the conjunction as well as the Gr.

Diss. V. Part i. sect 7.

2. "The administration." 6. "Unemployed," doyous, wanting in the Cam. and two other MSS. not in the Vul. Sax. and Cop. versions.

7. "And ye shall receive what is reasonable," xai ó làv díxaov neove. This clause is wanting in the Cam. and two other MSS. and there is nothing answering to it in the Vul. and Sax. versions.

13. "Friend," Taige. Diss. XII. Part. i. sect. 11.

15. "May not I do what I will with mine own?" ovx ëĝeorí μοι ποιῆσαι ὃ θέλω ἐν τοῖς ἐμοῖς, Vul. “ Non licet mihi quod volo facere?" Here there is no translation of the words v rois pois, though of manifest importance to the sense. There is the same defect in the Sax. and Arm. versions, but not in any Gr. MS. that has yet appeared, nor in any other translation.

22. "Undergo an immersion like that which I must undergo," τὸ βάπτισμα ὅ ἐγὼ βαπτίζομαι, βαπτισθῆναι. Ε.Τ. “ To be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with." The primitive signification of βάπτισμα is immersion, of βαπτίζειν ' to immerse, 'plunge,' or 'overwhelm.' The noun ought never to be rendered baptism, nor the verb to baptize, but when employed in relation to a religious ceremony. The verb βαπτίζειν sometimes, and βάπτειν, which is synonymous, often occurs in the Sep. and Apocryphal writings, and is always rendered in the common version by one or other of these words, to dip, to wash,'' to plunge.' When the original expression, therefore, is rendered in familiar language, there appears nothing harsh or extraordinary in the metaphor. Phrases like these, to be overwhelmed with grief, to be immersed in affliction, will be found common in most languages.

It is proper here further to observe, that the whole of this clause, and that corresponding to it in the subsequent verse, are in this Gospel wanting in the Vul. and several MSS. As they are found, however, in the far greater number both of ancient versions and of MSS., and perfectly coincide with the scope of the passage, I did not think there was weight enough in what might be urged on the opposite side, to warrant the omission of them; neither indeed does Wet. But Gro. and Mill are of the contrary opinion.

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23. "I cannot give, unless to those," ovx čotiv ¿uòv Sovvat, áλä ois. E. T. "Is not mine to give; but it shall be given to them." The conjunction alla, when, as in this place, it is not followed by a verb, but by a noun or pronoun, is generally to be understood as of the same import with ei un, nisi, unless,'' except ;' otherwise the verb must be supplied, as is done here in the common version. But as such an ellipsis is uncommon, recourse ought not to be had to it without necessity Of the interpretation I have given of the conjunction allά, we have an example Mr. 9: 8, compared with Mt. 17: 8. Vul. "Non est meum dare vobis." See Mr. 10: 40. N.

διάκονος.

36. "Servant," diánovos. E. T. "Minister." In the proper 27. "Slave," doulos. E. T. "Servant." S and primitive sense of diaxovos, it is a servant who attends his master, waits on him at table, and is always near his person to obey his orders, which was accounted a more creditable kind of service. By the word

doulos is not only meant a servant in general, (whatever kind of work he be employed in), but also a slave. It is solely from the scope and connexion that we must judge when it should be rendered in the one way, and when in the other. In the passage before us, the view in both verses is to signify, that the true dignity of the Christian will arise more from the service he does to others, than the power he possesses over them. We are to judge, therefore, of the value of the words, from the import of those they are contrasted with and as desiring to be great is a more moderate ambition than desiring to be chief, we naturally conclude, that as the word opposed to the former should be expressive of some of the inferior stations in life, that opposed to the latter must be expressive of the lowest. When this sufficiently suits the ordinary signification of the words, there can hardly remain any doubt. As this is manifestly the case here, I did not know any words in our language by which I could better express a difference in degree, so clearly intended, than the words servant and slave. The word minister is now appropriated to the servants, not of private masters, but of the public. It is from the distinctions in private life, well known at the time, that our Lord's illustrations are borrowed.

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31. " Charged them to be silent,” ἐπετίμησεν αὐτοῖς ἵνα σιω пnowow. E. T. "Rebuked them, because they should hold their peace." The historian surely did not mean to blame the poor men for their importunity. Our Lord, on the contrary, commends such importunity, sometimes expressly in words, and always by making the application successful. But to render iva because, appears quite unexampled. It answers commonly to the La. ut,' sometimes to 'ita ut,' but never, as far as I remember to 'quia,' It is rendered 'ut' in this passage in all the La. versions. The import of "vu ascertains the sense of initiuάw, which is frequently translated' to charge,' even in the common version. In proof of this several places might be produced; but I shall only refer the reader to the parallel passage in Mr. 10: 48, where intripov avro nokioi iva ocannon is translated, "Many charged him that he should hold his peace; and to Mr. 9: 25. N.

CHAPTER XXI.

4. "Now all this was done, that the words of the prophet might be fulfilled,” τοῦτο δὲ ὅλον γέγονεν, ἵνα πληρωθῇ τὸ ῥηθὲν dia τov пoo¶ýτov. Our Lord's perfect knowledge of all that the prophets had predicted concerning him, gives a propriety to this manner of rendering these words, when every thing is done by his direction, which it could not have in any other circumstances.

5. "The daughter of Zion," that is, Jerusalem," so named