heart, and the less honourable parts of the human frame. The upper girdle was sometimes made of leather, the material of which the girdle of John the Baptist was made; but it was more commonly fabricated of worsted, often very artfully woven into a variety of figures, and made to fold several times about the body; one end of which being doubled back, and sewn along the edges, serves them for a purse, agreeably to the acceptation of (wn in the scriptures, which is translated purse in several places of the New Testament.-PAXTON.

The dress of John greatly resembled that of the interior nations of South Africa, only substituting a skin cloak for one of camel's hair; and his food that of the wild Bushmen during the locust season. Locusts resemble gigantic grasshoppers furnished with wings. When they come, like innumerable armies, they certainly destroy all vegetation; but their carcasses are sufficient for the support of human life. The wild Bushmen kill millions of them, which they gather together, dry them in the sun, and then grind them into powder, which they mix up with wild honey, or what the bees deposite upon rocks, trees, and bushes, and on this compound live à part of the year; so that the locusts, which are the greatest scourge of more civilized people, are considered as welcome visiters by the wild Bushmen, who hail their approach. Indeed, the crocus and locust seasons are called their harvests; thus showing that what is a judgment to one nation is a mercy to another.-CAMPBELL.

Ver. 11. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire.

The custom of loosing the sandals from off the feet of an eastern worshipper was ancient and indispensable. It is also commonly observed in visits to great men. The sandals or slippers are pulled off at the door, and either left there, or given to a servant to bear. The person to bear them means an inferior domestic, or attendant upon a man of high rank, to take care of, and return them to him again. This was the work of servants among the Jews: and it was reckoned so servile, that it was thought too mean for a scholar or a disciple to do. The Jews say, "all services which a servant does for his master a disciple does for his master, except unloosing his shoes." John thought it was too great an honour for him to do that for Christ, which was thought too mean for a disciple to do for a wise man. -GILL.

A respectable man never goes out without his servant or attendant; thus, he has always some one to talk with, and to do any thing he may require. When the ground is smooth, or where there is soft grass to walk on, the sandals are taken off, and the servant carries them in his hand. The devoted, the humble John, did not consider himself worthy to bear the sandals of his divine Master.-ROBERTS.

Ver. 12. Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

There is, in what the Baptist here declares, an evident allusion to the custom of burning the chaff after winnowing, that it might not be blown back again, and so be mingled with the wheat. There was danger, lest, after they had been separated, the chaff should be blown again among the wheat by the changing of the wind. To prevent this they put fire to it at the windward side, which crept on and never gave over till it had consumed all the chaff. In this sense it was an unquenchable fire. See also Psalm lxxxiii. 13, 14. Isaiah v. 24.-BURDER.

After the grain is trodden out, they winnow it by throwing it up against the wind with a shovel-the To Tvov of the gospels according to Matthew and Luke, there rendered a fan, which is too cumbersome a machine to be intended by the evangelist. The text should rather run, whose shovel or fork, the opyavov odovтikov, (which is a portable instrument,) is in his hand, agreeably to the practice recorded by Isaiah, who mentions both the shovel and the fan: "The

oxen likewise, and the young asses that ear the ground, shall eat clean provender, which hath been winnowed with the shovel and with the fan."

After the grain is winnowed, they lodge it in subterraneous magazines, as was formerly the custom of other nations; two or three hundred of these receptacles are sometimes to be found together, the smallest holding four hundred bushels. These grottoes are dug in the form of an oven, gradually enlarging towards the bottom, with one round opening at top; and this being close shut when the magazine is full, is covered over with earth, so as to remain perfectly concealed from an enemy. These magazines are sometimes discovered in the midst of a ploughed field; sometimes on the verge, and even in the middle of the highway. The same kind of granaries are used in Palestine as in Syria. Le Bruyn speaks of a number of deep pits at Rama, which he was told were designed for corn: and Rauwolf, of three very large vaults at Joppa, where the inhabitants laid up their corn, when he was in that country. The treasures in the field, consisting of wheat and of barley, of oil and of honey, which were offered to Ishmael, as a ransom for the lives of his captives, were undoubtedly laid up in the same kind of repositories. In dangerous and unsettled times like those of Jeremiah, it is quite common, even at present, for the Arabs to secure their corn and other effects, which they cannot carry along with them, in deep pits or subterraneous grottoes. Sir John Chardin, in a note upon this very passage of the prophet, says, "The eastern people in many places hide their corn in these concealments." To these various customs the Baptist alludes in his solemn warning to the multitudes concerning Christ: "Whose fan (rather whose shovel) is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but the chaff will he burn with unquenchable fire." And our Lord himself, in his parable of the good seed: "Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them; but gather the wheat into my barn."-PAXTON.

Ver. 16. And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water and lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him.

Many have supposed, that the third person of the trinity, on this occasion, assumed the real figure of a dove; but the sacred writer seems to refer, not to the shape, but to the manner in which the dove descends from the sky. Had it related to the shape or form, it would not have been wo REPIGEрav, as a dove; but won Epioepas, as of a dove. In this manner, the likeness of fire is expressed by the same evangelist, in the Acts of the Apostles: "There appeared cloven tongues (woε Tupos) as of fire." The meaning of the clause therefore is, that as a dove hovers on the wing, and overshadows the place upon which she intends to perch, so did the Holy Spirit, in the form of a luminous cloud, like the Shechinah which rested on the tabernacle, gradually descend, hovering, and overshadowing the Saviour as he came up from the water. This exposition refutes another opinion, which was entertained by many of the ancients, that it was a real dove which alighted upon the head of our Lord; for if the sacred writer describes only the manner of descending, neither the form nor the real presence of a dove can be admitted. But although the evangelist alludes only to the manner in which that bird descends from the wing, he clearly recognises her as the chosen emblem of the Holy Spirit, the messenger of peace and joy to sinful and miserable men.-PAXTON.

CHAPTER IV.

Ver. 1. Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.

In sacred language, a mountainous, or less fruitful tract, where the towns and villages are thinly scattered, and single habitations few and far between, is distinguished by the name of the wilderness. The forerunner of our Lord resided in the wilderness of Judah till he commenced his public ministry. We are informed, in the book of Genesis, that Ishmael settled in the wilderness of Paran; and in the first book of Samuel, that David took refuge from the per