BONNET (bOn'net), (Heb. turbans, hilt-shaped; fich-ayr', tires, orna ments).
Among the Jews, bonnets and miters were the same. They were made of a piece of linen, sixteen yards long, which covered their priests' heads, in form of a helmet ; that of the common priests being roundish. and that of the high-priest pointed at the top (Lev. viii :13). Josephus (Antiq. vol. iii. chap. 7, sec. 2) describes the bonnet of the common priests as made of a great many rounds of linen, sewed into the form of a crown, and the whole covered with a fold of plain linen, to hide the seams; and the high-priest's as having another above this of a violet color. which was encompassed with a triple crown of gold. with three rows of the dower which the Greeks call x) (trot or probably blue-Is the (..Intig. vol. iii. chap. 8) interrupted in the forepart with the golden plate, inscribed Holiness to the Lord. These bonnets and miters of the priests repre sented the pure and excellent royalty of our blessed Iligh-Priest, Christ (Exod. xxviii:4).
BOOK (boiO, (Deb. sail:-, hook, writing; Gr. f310Xos, bibles), a written register of events or declaration of doctrines and laws (Gen. v:i; Esth.
vi o.
(1) The Books of Moses are called the book of the law; and a copy of Deuteronomy, if not the parchment. This, when written on, was either sewed together in long rolls, and written only on one side, in the manner of the copy of the law now used in the Jewish synagogues ; or it was formed in the manner of our books. When the book was written on one of these rolls, it was wound on a stick, and turned off or on at the read er's pleasure ;—hence the term l'olume. Some Indian books are extant, written on leaves of the Malabar palm tree. Books now, and for about five or six centuries backward, have been generally written on linen paper. The Jews had their copies whole of them, was laid up in some repository of the ark ( Dent. xxxi:26). Anciently. men used to write upon tables of stone, lead. copper, wood, wax, bark, or leaves of trees. The ancient Egyptians wrote on linen, as appears from inscriptions on some bandages of their mummies; and so, it is likely, did the 1 About It C. 367o they began to write on the inner films or skins of their paper reed:. Ilesiod's isorks %sere written on tables of lead; the Roman laws on twelve tables of brass; Solon's on wood ; and those of God on slime. probably marble In very a neient times. the Persian: and Ionians wrote on skins When Attalus, king of Pergamos; Ins library. about B. C. 230, he either invented or improved of the Scriptures carefully transcribed on rolls of parchment, and hence we read of a roll, or the roll of a hook : or of the heavens rolled together as a scroll. It was probably a roll of the prophet Isaiah, 'a hick was pm into our Lord's hands in the synagogue at Nazareth ; and on such a roll Baruch wrote, at Jertimiah's dictation, the proph ecy which the king of Judah burned Uer. xxxvi; Luke iv:17 .
(2) The Book of the Lord is either the Script ures (I ti. X X XIV :lb ) or his purpose. wherein every
thing is regulated and fixed ( Ps. cxxxix :ft); Rev. v:4: x :2) or his providential care and support of men's natural life (Exod. xxxii :32; Ps. lxix -28) or his omniscient observation. and fixed remem brance of things (P:. lvi :8 ; iii:t6) (3) "Book of the Wars of the Lord" (Minn x :141 iss thought by some to be an ancient docu ment existing at the time of the writing of the Pentateuch, and quoted or alluded to by Nloses. Another view is that it "is a collection of odes of the time of Nbe:es himself, in celebration of the glorious acts of the Lord and of the Israelite:" (K. and , Com ). "Was this book a record of songs sung over camp fires, just as the Bedouins do to-day a It seems most likely" (I hr per. Itik/). .I/orleen DisciWeries. p. 122) (4) The Book of Life. In Phil iv :3 Paul speaks of Clement and other of his fellow labor ers, 'whose IlatlICS arts' written in the book of life.' On this I leinrichs (.1nnotat in rp. Philipp) ob serve.: that as the future life is represented under the image of .1 woXlrruAa th:enchiji. iinniztnitr. political society) just before (iii :2o), it is in agreement with this to suppose (as usual) a cata logue of the citizens' names, both natural and adopted (Luke x:20; Rev. xx:i5; xxi :27), and from which the unworthy are erased (Rev. iii :5). Thus the names of the good are often represented as registered in heaven (Rev. iii:5). But this by no means implies a certainty of salvation (nor, as Doddridge remarks, does it appear that Paul in this passage had any particular revelation), but only that at that time the persons were on the list, from which (as in Rev. :5) the names of un worthy members might be erased. This explana tion is sufficient and satisfactory for the other im portant passage in Rev. iii :5, where the glorified Christ promises to 'him that overcometh,' that he will not blot his name out of the book of life.
(5) A Sealed Book (Is. xxix :1 ; Rev. v :I-3) is a book whose contents are secret, and have for a very long time been so, and are not to be pub lished till the seal is removed.
(6) A Book or Roll Written Within and Without, i. e., on the back side (Rev. v :t ), may be a book containing a long series of events; it not being the custom of the ancients to write on the back side of the roll, unless when the inside would not contain the whole of the writing (Comp. Horace, Ep. i. 20, 3).
(7) To Eat a Book signifies to consider it care fully and digest it well in the mind (Jer. xv :t6; Rev. x:g). A similar metaphor is used by Christ in John vi., where he repeatedly proposes himself as 'the Bread of Life' to be eaten by his people.
(8) Man's Conscience is like to a book; it records whatever he has done (Dan. vii :to).
(9) Christ's Opening the Sealed Book im ports the predeclaration and exact fulfilment of the purposes of God relative to the New Testa ment church ( Rev. v:g ; viii:t). (See ROLL ; WRITING.)