ADVERTISEMENT TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. (continued 19)

Cesserunt nitidis habitandæ piscibus undæ:

Terra feras cepit, volucres agitabilis aër.

Sanctius his animal, mentisque capacius altæ

Deerat adhuc, et quod dominari in cætera posset:

Natus homo est.

“Before the seas, and this terrestrial ball,

And heav’n’s high canopy, that covers all,

One was the face of nature; if a face:

Rather, a rude and indigested mass:

A lifeless lump, unfashion’d, and unframed,

Of jarring seeds; and justly chaos named.

But God, or nature, while they thus contend,

To these intestine discords put an end;

Then earth from air, and seas from earth were driv’n,

And grosser air sunk from ethereal heav’n.

Thus when the God, whatever god was he,

Had form’d the whole, and made the parts agree,

That no unequal portions might be found,

He moulded earth into a spacious round.

Then, every void of nature to supply,

With forms of gods he fills the vacant sky:

New herds of beasts he sends, the plains to share:

New colonies of birds, to people air;

And to their oozy beds the finny fish repair.

A creature of a more exalted kind

Was wanting yet, and then was man design’d:

Conscious of thought, of more capacious breast,

For empire form’d, and fit to rule the rest:

Whether with particles of heav’nly fire

The God of nature did his soul inspire,” &c.

Dryden.

Here we see all the principal objects of creation mentioned exactly in the same order which Moses had assigned to them in his writings; and when we consider what follows;--the war of the giants; the general corruption of the world; the universal deluge; the preservation of Deucalion and Pyrrha; their sacrifices to the gods on leaving the vessel in which they had been preserved;--there can scarcely remain a doubt that Ovid borrowed, either directly or at second hand, from Moses. What he says, too, is perfectly consistent with the received notions on the subject, though it is probable that they had never before been so regularly methodised. This train of reasoning would lead us to conclude that Ovid, and indeed the whole Heathen world, derived their notions respecting the creation, and the early history of mankind, from the sacred Scriptures: and it shows how deficient their own resources were, when the pride of philosophy was forced to borrow from those whom it affected to despise. With regard to the western mythologists, then, there can be little doubt that their cosmogonies, at least such of them as profess to be historical, and not theoretical, are derived from Moses; and the same may be affirmed with regard to the traditions of the east: as they were the same with those of Greece in the time of Megasthenes, whose testimony to this effect is quoted both by Clemens Alexandrinus and Strabo, we may naturally conclude that they had the same origin.

4. The Hindoo mythology has grown, in the natural uninterrupted progress of corruption, to such monstrous and complicated absurdity, that in many cases it stands unique in extravagance. In the more ancient Hindoo writings, however, many sublime sentiments occur; and in the “Institutes of Menu,” many passages are found relating to the creation, which bear a strong resemblance to the account given by Moses. They are thus given in an advertisement, prefixed to the fifth volume of the “Asiatic Researches,” and are intended as a supplement to a former treatise on the Hindoo religion:--

“This universe existed only in the first divine idea, yet unexpanded, as if involved in darkness, imperceptible, undefinable, undiscoverable by reason, and undiscovered by revelation, as if it were wholly immersed in sleep. When the sole self-existing Power, himself undiscerned, but making this world discernible, with five elements and other principles of nature, appeared with undiminished glory, expanding his idea, or dispelling the gloom. He, whom the mind alone can perceive, whose essence eludes the external organs, who has no visible parts, who exists from eternity, even he, the soul of all beings, whom no being can comprehend, shone forth in person. He, having willed to produce various beings from his own divine substance, first with a thought created the waters. The waters are called nara, because they are the production of Nara, or the Spirit of God; and since they were his first ayana, or place of motion, he thence is called Narayana, or moving on the waters. From that which is, the first cause, not the object of sense, existing every where in substance, not existing to our perception, without beginning or end, was produced the divine male. He framed the heaven above, and the earth beneath; in the midst he placed the subtile ether, the eight regions, and the permanent receptacle of waters. He framed all creatures. He, too, first assigned to all creatures distinct names, distinct acts, and distinct occupations. He gave being to time, and the divisions of time; to the stars also, and the planets; to rivers, oceans, and mountains; to level plains, and uneven valleys. For the sake of distinguishing 277actions, he made a total difference between right and wrong. Having divided his own substance, the mighty Power became half male, half female. He whose powers are incomprehensible, having created this universe, was again absorbed in the spirit, changing the time of energy for the time of repose.”

In these passages we have evidently a philosophical comment on the account of creation given by Moses, or as transmitted from the same source of primitive tradition. We also see in these passages the rudiments of the Platonic philosophy, the eternal ideas in the divine mind, &c; and were any question to arise respecting the original author of these notions, we should have little hesitation in giving it against the Greeks. They were the greatest plagiaries both in literature and philosophy, and they have scarcely an article of literary property which they can call their own, except their poetry. Their sages penetrated into Egypt and India, and on their return stigmatized the natives of these countries as barbarians, lest they should be suspected of stealing their inventions.

5. The Chaldean cosmogony, according to Berosus, when divested of allegory, seems to resolve itself into this, that darkness and water existed from eternity; that Belus divided the humid mass, and gave birth to creation; that the human mind is an emanation from the divine nature. The cosmogony of the ancient Persians is very clumsy. They introduce two eternal principles, the one good, called Oromasdes, the other evil, called Arimanius; and they make these two principles contend with each other in the creation and government of the world. Each has his province, which he strives to enlarge; and Mithras is the mediator to moderate their contentions. This is the most inartificial plan that has been devised to account for the existence of evil, and has the least pretensions to a philosophical basis. The Egyptian cosmogony, according to the account given of it by Plutarch, seems to bear a strong resemblance to the Phenician, as detailed by Sanchoniatho. According to the Egyptian account, there was an eternal chaos, and an eternal spirit united with it, whose agency at last arranged the discordant materials, and produced the visible system of the universe. The cosmogony of the northern nations, as may be collected from the Edda, supposes an eternal principle prior to the formation of the world. The Orphic Fragments state every thing to have existed in God, and to proceed from him. The notion implied in this maxim is suspected to be pantheistic, that is, to imply the universe to be God; which, however, might be a more modern perversion. Plato supposed the world to be produced by the Deity, uniting eternal, immutable ideas, or forms, to variable matter. Aristotle had no cosmogony, because he supposed the world to be without beginning and without end. According to the Stoical doctrine, the divine nature, acting on matter, first produced moisture, and then the other elements, which are reciprocally convertible.

CRETE, an island in the Mediterranean, now called Candia, Titus i, 5. Nature had endowed this island with all that renders man happy; the inhabitants, likewise, had formerly a constitution which was renowned and frequently compared with that of the Spartans; but at this time, and even long before, all, even laws and morals, had sunk very low. The character of this nation was mutable, prone to quarrelling, to civil disturbances and frays, to robberies and violences. Avaricious and base to a degree of sordid greediness, they considered nothing as ignoble which gratified this inclination. Thence arose their treachery, their false and deceitful disposition, which had passed into a common proverb. Even in the times of purer morals they were decidedly addicted to wine; and their propensity to incontinence was frequently censured and noticed by the ancients. Religion itself was one cause of the many excesses of this nation. Many deities were born among them; they also showed their tombs and catacombs, and celebrated the feasts and mysteries of all. They therefore had continually holydays, diversions, and idle times, and one of their native poets (Diodorus calls him Θεολόγος) gave them the testimony which Paul found to be so true, Titus i, 12. Jews also had established themselves among them, who according to all appearance could have improved here but very little in morality. The Apostle seems to have considered them a more dangerous people than the inhabitants themselves.

CRIMSON, כרמיל, 2 Chron. ii, 7, iii, 14, the name of a colour. Bochart supposes it to be the cochlea purpuraria, or purple from a kind of shell-fish taken near Mount Carmel. But as the name of the mount is said to mean a vineyard, one may rather suppose the colour to signify that of grapes; like the redness of the vesture of him who trod the wine-press, Isa. lxiii, 1, 2. What our version renders crimson, Isa. i, 18; Jer. iv, 30, should be scarlet.

CROSS, an ancient instrument of capital punishment. The cross was the punishment inflicted by the Romans, on servants who had perpetrated crimes, on robbers, assassins, and rebels; among which last Jesus was reckoned, on the ground of his making himself King or Messiah, Luke xxiii, 1–5, 13–15. The words in which the sentence was given were, “Thou shalt go to the cross.” The person who was subjected to this punishment was then deprived of all his clothes excepting something around the loins. In this state of nudity he was beaten, sometimes with rods, but more generally with whips. Such was the severity of this flagellation, that numbers died under it. Jesus was crowned with thorns, and made the subject of mockery; but insults of this kind were not among the ordinary attendants of crucifixion. They were owing, in this case, merely to the petulant spirit of the Roman soldiers, Matt. xxvii, 29; Mark xv, 17; John xix, 2, 5. The criminal, having been beaten, was subjected to the farther suffering of being obliged to carry the cross himself to the place of punishment, which was commonly a hill, near the public way, and out of the city. The 278place of crucifixion at Jerusalem was a hill to the north-west of the city. The cross, ϛαυρὸς, a post, otherwise called the unpropitious or infamous tree, consisted of a piece of wood erected perpendicularly, and intersected by another at right angles near the top, so as to resemble the letter T. The crime for which the person suffered was inscribed on the transverse piece near the top of the perpendicular one.

There is no mention made in ancient writers of any thing on which the feet of the person crucified rested. Near the middle, however, of the perpendicular beam, there projected a piece of wood, on which he sat, and which answered as a support to the body, since the weight of the body might otherwise have torn away the hands from the nails driven through them. The cross, which was erected at the place of punishment, being there firmly fixed in the ground, rarely exceeded ten feet in height. The victim, perfectly naked, was elevated to the small projection in the middle: the hands were then bound by a rope round the transverse beam, and nailed through the palm.

The assertion that the persons who suffered crucifixion were not in some instances fastened to the cross by nails through the hands and feet, but were merely bound to it by ropes, cannot be proved by the testimony of any ancient writer whatever. That the feet, as well as the hands, were fastened to the cross by means of nails, is expressly asserted in the play of Plautus, entitled “Mostellaria,” compared with Tertullian against the Jews, and against Marcion. In regard to the nailing of the feet, it may be farthermore observed, that Gregory Nazianzen has asserted, that one nail only was driven through both of them; but Cyprian, (de passione,) who had been a personal witness to crucifixions, and is, consequently, in this case, the better authority, states, on the contrary, that two nails or spikes were driven, one through each foot. The crucified person remained suspended in this way till he died, and the corpse had become putrid. While he exhibited any signs of life, he was watched by a guard; but they left him when it appeared that he was dead. The corpse was not buried, except by express permission, which was sometimes granted by the emperor on his birth day, but only to a very few. An exception, however, to this general practice was made by the Romans in favour of the Jews, on account of Deut. xxi, 22, 23; and in Judea, accordingly, crucified persons were buried on the same day. When, therefore, there was not a prospect that they would die on the day of the crucifixion, the executioners hastened the extinction of life, by kindling a fire under the cross, so as to suffocate them with the smoke, or by letting loose wild beasts upon them, or by breaking their bones upon the cross with a mallet, as upon an anvil. The Jews, in the times of which we are speaking, namely, while they were under the jurisdiction of the Romans, were in the habit of giving the criminal, before the commencement of his sufferings, a medicated drink of wine and myrrh, Prov. xxxi, 6. The object of this was to produce intoxication, and thereby render the pains of the crucifixion less sensible to the sufferer. This beverage was refused by the Saviour for the obvious reason, that he chose to die with the faculties of his mind undisturbed and unclouded, Matt. xxvii, 34; Mark xv, 23. It should be remarked, that this sort of drink, which was probably offered out of kindness, was different from the vinegar which was subsequently offered to the Saviour by the Roman soldiers. The latter was a mixture of vinegar and water, denominated posca, and was a common drink for the soldiers in the Roman army, Luke xxiii, 36; John xix, 29.

2. Crucifixion was not only the most ignominious, it was likewise the most cruel, mode of punishment: so very much so, that Cicero is justified in saying, in respect to crucifixion, “Ab oculis, auribusque et omni cogitatione hominum, removendum esse.” [That it ought neither to be seen, heard of, nor even thought of by men.] The sufferings endured by a person on whom this punishment is inflicted are narrated by George Gottlieb Richter, a German physician, in a “Dissertation on the Saviour’s Crucifixion.” The position of the body is unnatural, the arms being extended back, and almost immovable. In case of the least motion, an extremely painful sensation is experienced in the hands and feet, which are pierced with nails, and in the back, which is lacerated with stripes. The nails, being driven through the parts of the hands and feet which abound in nerves and tendons, create the most exquisite anguish. The exposure of so many wounds to the open air brings on an inflammation, which every moment increases the poignancypoignancy of the suffering. In those parts of the body which are distended or pressed, more blood flows through the arteries than can be carried back in the veins. The consequence is, that a greater quantity of blood finds its way from the aorta into the head and stomach, than would be carried there by a natural and undisturbed circulation. The blood vessels of the head become pressed and swollen, which of course causes pain, and a redness of the face. The circumstance of the blood being impelled in more than ordinary quantities into the stomach is an unfavourable one also, because it is that part of the system which not only admits of the blood being stationary, but is peculiarly exposed to mortification. The aorta, not being at liberty to empty, in the free and undisturbed way as formerly, the blood which it receives from the left ventricle of the heart, is unable to receive its usual quantity. The blood of the lungs, therefore, is unable to find a free circulation. This general obstruction extends its effects likewise to the right ventricle, and the consequence is, an internal excitement, and exertion, and anxiety, which are more intolerable than the anguish of death itself. All the large vessels about the heart, and all the veins and arteries in that part of the system, on account of the accumulation and pressure of blood, are the source of inexpressible misery. The degree of anguish is gradual in its increase; and the 279person crucified is able to live under it commonly till the third, and sometimes till the seventh, day. Pilate, therefore, being surprised at the speedy termination of the Saviour’s life, inquired in respect to the truth of it of the centurion himself, who commanded the soldiers, Mark xv, 44. In order to bring their life to a more speedy termination, so that they might be buried on the same day, the bones of the two thieves were broken with mallets, John xix, 31–37; and in order to ascertain this point in respect to Jesus, namely, whether he was really dead, or whether he had merely fallen into a swoon, a soldier thrust his lance into his side; but no signs of life appeared, John xix, 31–37.

3. Our Saviour says, that whosoever will be his disciple must take up his cross and follow him, Matt. xvi, 24: by which is meant, that his disciples must be willing to suffer for him, in any way in which God, in the course of his providence, may call them to suffer; even to endure martyrdom, if called to it. The cross is also often put for the whole of Christ’s sufferings, Eph. ii, 16; Heb. xii, 2; and the doctrine of his perfect atonement, Gal. vi, 14.

CROWN is a term properly taken for a cap of state worn on the heads of sovereign princes, as a mark of regal dignity. In Scripture there is frequent mention made of crowns; and the use of them seems to have been very common among the Hebrews. The high priest wore a crown, which was girt about his mitre, or the lower part of his bonnet, and was tied about his head. On the forepart was a plate of gold, with these words engraven on it: “Holiness to the Lord,” Exod. xxviii, 36; xxix, 6. New-married persons of both sexes wore crowns upon their wedding day, Cant., iii, 11; and, alluding to this custom, it is said that when God entered into covenant with the Jewish nation, he put a beautiful crown upon their head, Ezekiel xvi, 12. The first crowns were no more than a bandelet drawn round the head, and tied behind, as we see it still represented on medals, &c. Afterward, they consisted of two bandelets; by degrees they took branches of trees of divers kinds, &c; at length they added flowers; and Claudius Saturninus says there was not any plant of which crowns had not been made.

There was always a difference, either in matter or form, between the crowns of kings and great men, and those of private persons. The crown of a king was generally a white fillet bound about his forehead, the extremities whereof being tied behind the head, fell back on the neck. Sometimes they were made of gold tissue, adorned with jewels. That of the Jewish high priest, which is the most ancient of which we have any description, was a fillet of gold placed upon his forehead, and tied with a ribbon of a hyacinth colour, or azure blue. The crown, mitre, and diadem, royal fillet and tiara, are frequently confounded. Crowns were bestowed on kings and princes, as the principal marks of their dignity. David took the crown of the king of the Ammonites from off his head: the crown weighed a talent of gold, and was moreover enriched with jewels, 2 Sam. xii, 30; 1 Chron. xx, 2. The Amalekite who valued himself on killing Saul, brought this prince’s crown unto David, 2 Sam. i, 10. The crown was placed upon the head of young King Josiah, when he was presented to the people, in order to be acknowledged by them, 2 Chron. xxiii, 11. Baruch says that the idols of the Babylonians wore golden crowns, Baruch vi, 9. Queens, too, wore diadems among the Persians. King Ahasuerus honoured Vashti with this mark of power; and, after her divorce, the same favour was granted to Esther, chap. ii, 17. The elders, in Rev. iv, 10, are said to “cast their crowns before the throne.” The allusion is here to the tributary kings dependent upon the Roman emperors. Herod took off his diadem in the presence of Augustus, till ordered to replace it. Tiridates did homage to Nero by laying the ensigns of royalty at the foot of his statue.

Pilate’s guard platted a crown of thorns, and placed it on the head of Jesus Christ, Matt. xxvii, 29, with an intention to insult him, under the character of the king of the Jews. See Thorn. In a figurative sense, a crown signifies honour, splendour, or dignity, Lam. v, 16; Phil. iv, 1; and is also used for reward, because conquerors, in the Grecian games, were crowned, 1 Corinthians ix, 25.

CRYSTAL, קרח. This word is translated “crystal” in Ezek. i, 22; and “frost,” Gen. xxxi, 40; Job xxxvii, 10; Jeremiah xxxvi, 30; and “ice,” Job vi, 16; xxxviii, 29; Psalm cxlvii, 17; κρυϛαλλος, Rev. iv, 6; xxii, 1. Crystal is supposed to have its name from its resemblance to ice. The Greek word, κρύϛαλλος, is formed from κρύος, ice, and ϛαλάσσομαι, to concrete. The word, זכוכית, is translated crystal, in Job xxviii, 17. Dr. Good observes, “We are not certain of the exact signification, farther than that it denotes some perfectly transparent and hyaline gem.”

CUBIT, a measure used among the ancients. The Hebrews call it אמא, the mother of other measures: in Greek ϖῆχυς. A cubit originally was the distance from the elbow to the extremity of the middle finger: this is the fourth part of a well proportioned man’s stature. The common cubit is eighteen inches. The Hebrew cubit, according to Bishop Cumberland and M. Pelletier, is twenty-one inches; but others fix it at eighteen inches. The Talmudists observe, that the Hebrew cubit was larger by one quarter than the Roman. Lewis Capellus and others have asserted that there were two sorts of cubits among the Hebrews; one sacred, the other common; the sacred containing three feet, the common containing a foot and a half. Moses assigns to the Levites a thousand sacred cubits of land round about their cities, Num. xxxv, 4; and in the next verse he gives them two thousand common ones. The opinion, however, is very probable, that the cubit varied in different districts and cities, and at different times, &c.

CUCUMBER, קשאים, σίκυος, cucumis, Num. xi, 5, the fruit of a plant very common in our gardens. Tournefort mentions six kinds, of which the white and green are most esteemed. 280They are very plentiful in the east, especially in Egypt, and much superior to ours. Maillet, in describing the vegetables which the modern Egyptians have for food, tells us, that melons, cucumbers, and onions are the most common; and Celsius and Alpinus describe the Egyptian cucumbers as more agreeable to the taste and of more easy digestion than the European.

CULDEES, a body of religious, who chiefly resided in Scotland, Ireland, and some of the adjacent isles. The name has been also written Keldees and Kyldees. Various etymons have been given of it. Two of these seem to have superior claims to attention. It may be deduced either from Irish ceile, or, gille, a servant, and De, Dia, God; or from cuil, ceal, in Welsh cel, a sequestered corner, a retreat. The latter seems to derive support from the established sense of kil, retained in the names of so many places, which, in an early age, have been consecrated to religion. It is more than probable that Christianity had found its way into Scotland before the close of the second century; and that it continued to be professed by a few scattered individuals even before the arrival of Ninian, in the beginning of the fifth. But we have no proof of the existence of any religious societies observing a particular institute, till the year 563, when Columba landed in Hii, or Iona; which, in honour of him, was afterward called I-colum-kill; that is, the isle of Colum, or Columba, of the cells. He was born in Ireland, A. D. 521; and, after founding many seminaries of religion there, prompted by zeal for the propagation of Christianity, set sail for Scotland with twelve companions. According to Bede, having converted the northern Picts, he received from Brudi, their king, the island of Hii in possession, for the purpose of erecting a monastery. Here he almost constantly resided till the year 597, when he died. He made occasional visits to the mainland, proceeding even as far as to Inverness: also to Ireland, where he was held in high estimation. As he was himself much devoted to the study of the Holy Scriptures, he taught his disciples to confirm their doctrines by testimonies brought from this unpolluted fountain, and declared that only to be the divine counsel which he found there. His followers, faithful to his instructions, “would receive those things only which are contained in the writings of the Prophets, Evangelists, and Apostles, diligently observing the works of piety and purity.” They lived, indeed, according to a certain institute, which, it is said, was composed by their venerable instructer. But there was this remarkable distinction between them and those societies properly called monastic, that they were not associated expressly for the purpose of observing this rule. While they seem to have reckoned something of this kind necessary for the preservation of order, and for the attainment of habits of diligence, their great design was, by the instruction of those committed to their charge, to train them up for the work of the ministry. Hence it has been justly observed, that the Culdean fraternities may more properly be viewed as colleges than as monasteries; as being in fact, the seminaries of the church both in North Britain and in Ireland. There were also Culdees in Wales; and, for many ages, the Christians of that country held the same doctrines, and observed the same rites, with their Scottish and Irish brethren. The presbyters not only acted as the ministers of religion to those in their vicinity, but were still instructing others, and sending forth missionaries whenever they had a call, or any prospect of success.

2. In each regular establishment of the Culdees, it would appear that there were twelve brethren, with one who presided over them. Their ecclesiastical government has been viewed as materially the same with the Presbyterian. Their president, or abbot, was not a bishop, but a presbyter; to whose authority, as we learn from Bede, even the bishops of the district were subject. In their meetings, all matters were settled by plurality of voices. The members of this council had the general designation of seniores, or elders. To them, collectively, belonged the trial of the gifts of those who had been educated in their seminaries, when they were to be employed in the public ministry; from them they received ordination and mission, and to them they were amenable in the discharge of their office. Those whom they thus employed are, by ancient writers, often denominated bishops. But that they attached to this designation no dignity superior to that of presbyter, appears incontrovertible from their being afterward called to account, and sometimes censured by the fraternity. It has been asserted by the friends of diocesan episcopacy, that a bishop must always have resided at Iona for the purpose of conferring ordination. But there is not the slightest evidence of this. The contrary appears from all the records of these early ages. We learn from the Saxon Chronicle, that “there was always an abbot at Hii, but no bishop.” It is a singular fact, that those who were first acknowledged as bishops in the northern parts of England, and were indeed instrumental in the introduction of Christianity there, were not only trained up at Iona, but received all their authority from the council of seniors in that island. This was the case with respect to Corman, the bishop of the Northumbrians, as well as Aidan, Finan, and Colman, who succeeded each other in this mission. From the testimony of Bede, it is evident that by means of Scottish missionaries, or of those whom they had instructed and ordained, not only the Northumbrians, but the Middle-Angles, the Mercians and East-Saxons, all the way to the river Thames, that is, the inhabitants of by far the greatest part of the country now called England, were converted to Christianity; and for some time acknowledged subjection to the ecclesiastical government of the Scots. The latter lost their influence merely because their missionaries chose rather to give up their charges than to submit to the prevailing influence of the church of Rome, to which the Saxons of the west and of Kent had subjected themselves.

2813. Their doctrines were not less unpalatable than their mode of government to the friends of the church of Rome. In England, in a very early period, the adherents of the Popish missionary Augustine were viewed by the delegates from Iona in the light of heretics. They accordingly refused to hold communion with them. Matters were carried so high in support of the Roman authority in the synod of Stroneschalch, now Whitby, in England, A. D. 662, that Colman, the Scottish bishop of Lindisfarne, left his bishopric, and with his adherents returned to Scotland. Thus, as Bede informs us, “the Catholic institution daily increasing, all the Scots who resided among the Angles, either conformed to them or returned to their own country.” It was decreed in the council of Cealhythe, A. D. 816, that no Scottish priest should be allowed to perform any duty of his function in England. But in Scotland the Culdean doctrine had taken deeper root; and, although equally offensive to the votaries of Rome, kept its ground for several centuries. The Popish writers themselves celebrate the piety, the purity, the humility, and even the learning, of the Culdees; but while they were displeased with the simplicity, or what they deemed the barbarism, of their worship, they charged them with various deviations from the faith of the Catholic church. It was not the least of these, that they did not observe Easter at the proper time. They did not acknowledge auricular confession; they rejected penance and authoritative absolution; they made no use of chrism in baptism; confirmation was unknown; they opposed the doctrine of the real presence; they withstood the idolatrous worship of saints and angels, dedicating all their churches to the Holy Trinity; they denied the doctrine of works of supererogation; they were enemies to the celibacy of the clergy, themselves living in the married state. One sweeping charge brought against them is, that they preferred their own opinions to “the statutes of the holy fathers.”

4. The Scots, having received the Christian faith by the labours of the Culdees, long withstood the errors and usurpations of Rome. It was not till the twelfth century that their influence began to decline. The difference between the lower classes of society in England and those of the same description in Scotland, both with respect to religious knowledge and moral conduct, is generally considered to be very striking. Some writers, whose attention has been arrested by this singular circumstance, and who could not be influenced by local attachments, have ascribed the disparity to the relative influence, however remote it may seem, of the doctrine and example of the Culdees. Notwithstanding their great disinterestedness and diligence in propagating the Gospel in England, these good men, it has been remarked, within thirty years after the commencement of their mission, were obliged to give way to the adherents of Rome; whereas the Scots, it is certainly known, enjoyed the benefit of their labours for more than seven centuries, and seem to have still retained their predilection for the doctrines and modes which they so early received.

CUMMIN, כמון, Isaiah xxviii, 25, 27; κύμινον, Matt. xxiii, 23. This is an umbelliferous plant, in appeara resembling fennel, but smaller. Is seeds have a bitterish warm taste, accompanied with an aromatic flavour, not of the most agreeable kind. An essential oil is obtained from them by distillation. The Jews sowed it in their fields, and when ripe threshed out the seeds with a rod, Isaiah xxviii, 25, 27. The Maltese sow it, and collect the seeds in the same manner.

CUP. This word is taken in a twofold sense; proper, and figurative. In a proper sense, it signifies a vessel, such as people drink out of at meals, Gen. xl, 13. It was anciently the custom, at great entertainments, for the governor of the feast to appoint to each of his guests the kind and proportion of wine which they were to drink, and what he had thus appointed them it was deemed a breach of good manners either to refuse or not to drink up; hence a man’s cup, both in sacred and profane authors, came to signify the portion, whether of good or evil, which happens to him in this world. Thus, to drink “the cup of trembling,” or of “the fury of the Lord,” is to be afflicted with sore and terrible judgments, Isaiah li, 17; Jeremiah xxv, 15–29; Psalm lxxv, 8. What Christ means by the expression, we cannot be at a loss to understand, since in two remarkable passages, Luke xxii, 42, and John xviii, 11, he has been his own interpreter. Lethale poculum bibere, “to drink the deadly cup,” or cup of death, was a common phrase among the Jews; and from them, we have reason to believe, our Lord borrowed it.

Cup of Blessing, 1 Corinth. x, 16, is that which was blessed in entertainments of ceremony, or solemn services; or, rather, a cup over which God was blessed for having furnished its contents; that is, for giving to men the fruit of the vine. Our Saviour, in the Last Supper, blessed the cup, and gave it to each of his Apostles to drink, Luke xxii, 20.

Cup of Salvation, Psalm cxvi, 13, a phrase of nearly the same import as the former, a cup of thanksgiving, of blessing the Lord for his saving mercies. We see, in 2 Macc. vi, 27, that the Jews of Egypt, in their festivals for deliverance, offered cups of salvation. The Jews have at this day cups of thanksgiving, which are blessed, in their marriage ceremonies, and in entertainments made at the circumcision of their children. Some commentators think that “the cup of salvation” was a libation of wine poured on the victim sacrificed on thanksgiving occasions, according to the law of Moses, Exod. xxix, 40.

CURSE. To curse, signifies to imprecate, to call for mischief upon, or wish evil to, any one. Noah cursed his grandson Canaan, Gen. ix, 25: Jacob cursed the fury of his two sons, Gen. xlix, 7: Moses enjoins the people of Israel to denounce curses against the violaters of the law, Deut. xxvii, 15, 16, &c. Joshua pronounced a curse upon him who should undertake to rebuild Jericho. These curses were 282such as were either ordained by God himself, and pronounced by men under the influence of his Spirit; or they were predictions of certain evils which would happen to individuals, or to a people, uttered in the form of imprecations. They were not the effects of passion, impatience, or revenge; and, therefore, were not things condemned by God in his law, like the cursing mentioned, Exodus xxi, 17, xxii, 28, Leviticus xix, 14.

CUSH, the eldest son of Ham, and father of Nimrod, Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabtecha; and the grandfather of Sheba and Dedan. The posterity of Cush, spread over great part of Asia and Africa, were called Cushim, or Cushites; and by the Greeks and Romans, and in our Bible, Ethiopians.

Cush, Cutha, Cuthea, Cushan, Ethiopia, Land of Cush, the country or countries peopled by the descendants of Cush; whose first plantations were on the gulf of Persia, in that part which still bears the name of Chuzestan, and from whence they spread over India and great part of Arabia; particularly its western part, on the coast of the Red Sea; invaded Egypt, under the name of Hyc-Sos, or shepherd-kings; and thence passed, as well probably as by the straits of Babelmandel, into Central Africa, and first peopled the countries to the south of Egypt, Nubia, Abyssinia, and parts farther to the south and west. The indiscriminate use of the term Ethiopia in our Bible, for all the countries peopled by the posterity of Cush, and the almost exclusive application of the same term by the Greek and Roman writers to the before mentioned countries of Africa, have involved some portions of both sacred and profane history in almost inextricable confusion. The first country which bore this name, and which was doubtless the original settlement, was that which is described by Moses as encompassed by the river Gihon, or Gyndes; which encircles a great part of the province of Chuzestan in Persia. In process of time, the increasing family spread over the vast territory of India and Arabia: the whole of which tract, from the Ganges to the borders of Egypt, then became the land of Cush, or Asiatic Ethiopia, the Cusha Dweepa within, of Hindoo geography. Until dispossessed of this country, or a great part of it, by the posterity of Abraham, the Ishmaelites and Midianites, they, by a farther dispersion, passed over into Africa; which, in its turn, became the land of Cush, or Ethiopia, the Cusha Dweepa without, of the Hindoos: the only country so understood after the commencement of the Christian æra. Even from this last refuge, they were compelled, by the influx of fresh settlers from Arabia, Egypt, and Canaan, to extend their migrations still farther westward, into the heart of the African continent; where only in the woolly-headed negro, the genuine Cushite is to be found.

Herodotus relates that Xerxes had, in the army prepared for his Grecian expedition, both Oriental and African Ethiopians: and adds, that they resembled each other in every outward circumstance except their hair; that of the Asiatic Ethiopians being long and straight, while the hair of those of Africa was curled. This is a very remarkable fact; and leads to the question, How came this singular distinction between people of the same stock? Did it arise from change of climate and of habits? or from some original difference in a particular branch of the great family of Cush? The former appears by far the more probable. It is not likely that a people descended from a common parent should naturally be distinguished by such a peculiar difference; but that it might be acquired by change of soil and condition, we have every reason to believe. We have something exactly analogous to it, in the change which the hair of animals undergoes when removed from their native state. But a modern writer has furnished us with a fact which will go farther than either theory or analogy. Dr. Prichard, in his researches into the Physical History of Man, relates, on the authority of Dr. S. S. Smith, of the negroes settled in the southern districts of the United States of America, that the field-slaves, who live on the plantations, and retain pretty nearly the rude manners of their African progenitors, preserve in the third generation much of their original structure, though their features are not so strongly marked as those of imported slaves. But the domestic servants of the same race, who are treated with lenity, and whose condition is little different from that of the lower class of white people, in the third generation have the nose raised, the mouth and lips of moderate size, the eyes lively and sparkling, and often the whole composition of the features extremely agreeable. “The hair grows sensibly longer in each succeeding race, and extends to three, four, and sometimes to six or eight inches.”

About four hundred years before Christ, Herodotus, in his second book which treats of Egypt, makes frequent mention of Ethiopia; meaning exclusively the Ethiopia above Egypt. In the time of our Saviour, (and indeed from that time forward,) by Ethiopia, was meant, in a general sense, the countries south of Egypt, then but imperfectly known: of one of which, that Candace was queen whose eunuch was baptized by Philip.

From a review of the history of this remarkable people, we may see that those writers must necessarily be wrong who would confine the Ethiopians to either Arabia or Africa. Many parts of Scripture history cannot possibly be understood, without supposing them to have settlements in both; which Herodotus expressly asserts was the case. In fine, we may conclude, that in the times of the prophets, and during the transactions recorded in the second books of Kings and Chronicles, the Cushites, still retaining a part of their ancient territories in Arabia, had crossed the Red Sea in great numbers, and obtained extensive possessions in Africa; where, being, in a farther course of time, altogether expelled from the east by the Ishmaelites, &c, their remains are now concentrated. It is to be observed, however, that the Cushites probably at the time of 283their expulsion from Egypt, migrated, or sent colonies into several other parts, particularly to Phenicia, Colchis, and Greece; where, in process of time, they became blended with the other inhabitants of those countries, the families of Javan, Meshek, and Tubal, and their distinctive character totally lost.

CYPRESS, תרזה, Isa. xliv, 14; and κυπάρισσος, Ecclus. xxiv, 13; l, 10; a large evergreen tree. The wood is fragrant, very compact, and heavy. It scarcely ever rots, decays, or is worm-eaten; for which reason the ancients used to make the statues of their gods with it. The unperishable chests which contain the Egyptian mummies were of cypress. The gates of St. Peter’s church at Rome, which had lasted from the time of Constantine to that of Pope Eugene IV, that is to say eleven hundred years, were of cypress, and had in that time suffered no decay. But Celsius thinks that Isaiah speaks of the ilex, a kind of oak; and Bishop Lowth, that the pine is intended. The cypress, however, was more frequently used, and more fit for the purpose which the prophet mentions, than either of these trees.

CYPRUS, a large island in the Mediterranean, situated between Cilicia and Syria. Its inhabitants were plunged in all manner of luxury and debauchery. Their principal deity was Venus. The Apostles Paul and Barnabas landed in the isle of Cyprus, A. D. 44, Acts xiii, 4. While they continued at Salamis, they preached Jesus Christ in the Jewish synagogues; from thence they visited all the cities of the island, preaching the Gospel. At Paphos, they found Bar-Jesus, a false prophet, with Sergius Paulus, the governor: Paul struck Bar-Jesus with blindness; and the proconsul embraced Christianity. Some time after, Barnabas went again into this island with John, surnamed Mark, Acts xv, 39. Barnabas is considered as the principal Apostle, and first bishop, of Cyprus; where it is said he was martyred, being stoned to death by the Jews of Salamis.

CYRENE was a city of Lybia in Africa, which, as it was the principal city of that province, gave to it the name of Cyrenaica. This city was once so powerful as to contend with Carthage for preëminence. In profane writers, it is mentioned as the birthplace of Eratosthenes the mathematician, and Callimachus the poet; and in holy writ, of Simon, whom the Jews compelled to bear our Saviour’s cross, Matt. xxvii, 32; Luke xxiii, 26. At Cyrene resided many Jews, a great part of whom embraced the Christian religion; but others opposed it with much obstinacy. Among the most inveterate enemies of Christianity, Luke reckons those of this province, who had a synagogue at Jerusalem, and excited the people against St. Stephen, Acts xi, 20.

CYRENIUS, governor of Syria, Luke ii, 1, 2. Great difficulties have been raised on the history of the taxing under Cyrenius, for the different solutions of which we must refer to the commentators.

It may be observed on the passage in Luke ii, 1, 2, That the word οἰκȣμένη, rendered all the world, sometimes signifies the whole of a country, region, or district, as perhaps Acts xi, 28, and certainly Luke xxi, 26. The expression, “all the country,” is peculiarly proper in this place, because Galilee, as well as Judea, was included, and perhaps all other parts in which were Jews. The word ἀπογραφὴ, which is rendered taxing, should have been translated enrolment; as a taxation did not always really follow such enrolment, though such enrolment generally preceded a taxation. The difficulty of the passage is in the word ϖρώτη, first, because, ten or eleven years after, there was actually a taxation, which, as a decisive mark of subjection to the Roman power, was very mortifying to the Jewish nation. To this taxation Gamaliel alludes, “Judas of Galilee rose up in the days of the taxing,” Acts v, 37, when mobs and riots were frequent, under pretence of liberty.

The narrative of St. Luke may be combined in the following order, which is probably not far from its true import: “In those days Cæsar Augustus,” who was displeased with the conduct of Herod, and wished him to feel his dependence on the Roman empire, “issued a decree that the whole land” of Judea “should be enrolled,” as well persons as possessions, that the true state of the inhabitants, their families, and their property, might be known and recorded. Accordingly, “all were enrolled,” but the taxation did not immediately follow this enrolment, because Augustus was reconciled to Herod; and this accounts for the silence of Josephus on an assessment not carried into effect. “And this was the first assessment (or enrolment) of Cyrenius, governor of Syria. And all went to be enrolled, each to his own city;” and, as the emperor’s order was urgent, and Cyrenius was known to be active in the despatch of business, even Mary, though far advanced “in her pregnancy, went with Joseph, and while they waited” for their turn to be enrolled, “Mary was delivered of Jesus.” It is not, however, improbable, that Mary had some small landed estate, for which her appearance was necessary. Jesus, therefore, was enrolled with Mary and Joseph, as Julian the Apostate expressly says.

An officer being sent from Rome to enrol and assess the subjects of a king, implied that such king was dependent on the Roman emperor, and demonstrates that the sceptre was departed from Judah. This occurrence, added to the alarm of Herod on the inquiry of the Magi respecting the birthplace of the Messiah, might sufficiently exasperate Herod, not merely to slay the infants of Bethlehem, but to every act of cruelty. Hence, after such an occurrence, all Jerusalem might well be alarmed with Herod, Matt. ii, 3; and the priests, &c, study caution in their answers to him. This occurrence would quicken the attention of all who expected temporal redemption in Israel, as it would extremely mortify every Jewish national feeling.

The overruling providence of God appointed, that, at the time of Christ’s birth, there should be a public, authentic, and general production of titles, pedigrees, &c, which should 284prove that Jesus was descended from the house and direct family line of David; and that this should be proved judicially on such a scrutinizing occasion. This occurrence brought about the birth of the Messiah, at the very place appointed by prophecy long before, though the usual residence of Joseph and Mary was at Nazareth.

CYRUS, son of Cambyses the Persian, and of Mandane, daughter of Astyages, king of the Medes. At the age of thirty, Cyrus was made general of the Persian troops, and sent, at the head of thirty thousand men, to assist his uncle, Cyaxares, whom the Babylonians were preparing to attack. Cyaxares and Cyrus gave them battle, and dispersed them. After this, Cyrus carried the war into the countries beyond the river Halys; subdued Cappadocia; marched against Crœsus, king of Lydia, defeated him, and took Sardis, his capital. Having reduced almost all Asia, Cyrus repassed the Euphrates, and turned his arms against the Assyrians: having defeated them, he laid siege to Babylon, which he took on a festival day, after having diverted the course of the river which ran through it. On his return to Persia, he married his cousin, the daughter and heiress of Cyaxares; after which he engaged in several wars, and subdued all the nations between Syria and the Red Sea. He died at the age of seventy, after a reign of thirty years. Authors differ much concerning the manner of his death.

2. We learn few particulars respecting Cyrus from Scripture; but they are more certain than those derived from other sources. Daniel, in the remarkable vision in which God showed him the ruin of several great empires which preceded the birth of the Messiah, represents Cyrus as “a ram which had two horns, both high, but one rose higher than the other, and the higher came up last. This ram pushed westward, and northward, and southward, so that no beasts might stand before him, neither was there any that could deliver out of his hand; but he did according to his will, and became great,” Daniel viii, 3, 4, 20. The two horns signify the two empires which Cyrus united in his person, that of the Medes and that of the Persians. In another place, Daniel compares Cyrus to a bear, with three ribs in its mouth, to which it was said, “Arise, devour much flesh.” Cyrus succeeded Cambyses in the kingdom of Persia, and Darius the Mede (by Xenophon called Cyaxares, and Astyages in the Greek of Dan. xiii, 65,) also in the kingdom of the Medes, and the empire of Babylon. He was monarch, as he speaks “of all the earth,” Ezra i, 1, 2; 2 Chron. xxxvi, 22, 23, when he permitted the Jews to return into their own country, A. M. 3466, B. C. 538. He had always a particular regard for Daniel, and continued him in his great employments.

3. The prophets foretold the exploits of Cyrus. Isaiah, xliv, 28, particularly declares his name, above a century before he was born. Josephus says, that the Jews of Babylon showed this passage to Cyrus; and that, in the edict which he granted for their return, he acknowledged that he received the empire of the world from the God of Israel. The peculiar designation by name, which Cyrus received, must be regarded as one of the most remarkable circumstances in the prophetic writings. He was the heir of a monarch who ruled over one of the poorest and most inconsiderable kingdoms of Asia, but whose hardy inhabitants were at that time the bravest of the brave; and the providential circumstances in which he was placed precluded him from all knowledge of this oracular declaration in his favour. He did not become acquainted with the sacred books in which it was contained, nor with the singular people in whose possession it was found, till he had accomplished all the purposes for which he had been raised up, except that of saying to Jerusalem, as the “anointed” vicegerent of Heaven, “Thou shalt be inhabited;” and to the cities of Judah, “Ye shall be built, and I will raise up their ruins.” The national pride of the Jews during the days of their unhallowed prosperity, would hinder them from divulging among other nations such prophecies as this, which contained the most severe yet deserved reflections upon their wicked practices and ungrateful conduct; and it was only when they were captives in Babylon that they submitted to the humiliating expedient of exhibiting, to the mighty monarch whose bondmen they had become, the prophetic record of their own apostasy and punishment, and of his still higher destination, as the rebuilder of Jerusalem. No temptation therefore could be laid before the conqueror in early life to excite his latent ambition to accomplish this very full and explicit prophecy; and the facts of his life, as recorded by historians of very opposite sentiments and feelings, all concur in developing a series of consecutive events, in which he acted no insignificant part; which, though astonishing in their results, differ greatly from those rapid strides perceptible in the hurried career of other mighty men of war in the east; and which, from the unbroken connection in which they are presented to us, appear like the common occurrences of life naturally following each other, and mutually dependent. Yet this consideration does not preclude the presence of a mighty Spirit working within him; which, according to Isaiah, said to him, “I will gird thee, though thou hast not known me.” Concerning the genius, or guardian angel, of Socrates many learned controversies have arisen; but, though a few of the disputants have endeavoured to explain it away, the majority of them have left the Greek philosopher in possession of a greater portion of inspiration than, with marvellous inconsistency, some of them are willing to accord to the Jewish prophets. In this view it is highly interesting to recollect that the elegant historian who first informed his refined countrymen of this moral prodigy, is he who subsequently introduced them to an acquaintance with the noble and heroic Cyrus. The didactic discourses and the comparatively elevated 285morality which Xenophon embodied in his “Memoirs of Socrates,” are generally admitted to have been purposely illustrated in his subsequent admirable production, the Cyropædia, or “Education of Cyrus;” the basis of which is true history adorned and refined by philosophy, and exhibiting for universal imitation the life and actions of a prince who was cradled in the ancient Persian school of the Pischdadians, the parent of the Socratic. Isaiah describes, in fine poetic imagery, the Almighty going before Cyrus to remove every obstruction out of his way:--

“I will go before thee, and level mountains,

I will burst asunder the folding-doors of brass,

And split in twain the bars of iron.

Even I will give thee the dark treasures,

And the hidden wealth of secret places:

That thou mayest know, that I the Lord,

Who call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel.”Israel.”

According to Herodotus, Babylon was famous for its brazen gates and doors; a hundred were in the city walls, beside those which led to the river, and others which belonged to the temple of Belus. When Sardis and Babylon were taken by Cyrus, they were the wealthiest cities in the world. Crœsus gave an exact inventory of his immense treasures to Cyrus, and they were removed from Sardis in waggons. Pliny gives the following account of the wealth which Cyrus obtained by his conquests in Asia: “He found thirty-four thousand pounds’ weight of gold, beside vessels of gold, and gold wrought into the leaves of a platanus and of a vine; five hundred thousand talents of silver, and the cup of Semiramis, which weighed fifteen talents. The Egyptian talent, according to Varro, was equal to eighty pounds.” Mr. Brerewood estimates the value of the gold and silver in this enumeration at 126,224,000l. sterling. Other particulars relating to him, and the accomplishment of prophecy in his conquest of that large city, will be found under the article Babylon. It is the God of Israel who, in these sublime prophecies, confounds the omens and prognostics of the Babylonian soothsayers or diviners, after they had predicted the stability of that empire; and who announces the restoration of Israel, and the rebuilding of the city and temple of Jerusalem, through Cyrus his “shepherd” and his “anointed” messenger. Chosen thus by God to execute his high behests, he subdued and reigned over many nations,--the Cilicians, Syrians, Paphlagonians, Cappadocians, Phrygians, Lydians, Carians, Phenicians, Arabians, Egyptians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Bactrians, &c.

“I am He who frustrateth the tokens of the impostors,

And maketh the diviners mad; &c.

Who saith to the abyss, [Babylon,]

‘Be desolate, and I will dry up thy rivers:’

Who saith to Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd,

And shall perform all my pleasure.’

Thus saith the Lord to his anointed,

To Cyrus whom I hold by the right hand,

To subdue before him nations,

And ungird the loins of kings,

To open before him [palace] folding-doors;

Even [river] gates shall not be shut:

For Jacob my servant’s sake, and Israel my chosen,

I have surnamed thee;” &c.

4. Herodotus has painted the portrait of Cyrus in dark colours, and has been followed in many particulars by Ctesias, Diodorus Siculus, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Plato, Strabo, Justin, and others; in opposition to the contrary accounts of Æschylus, Xenophon, Josephus, the Persian historians, and, apparently, the Holy Scriptures. The motive for this conduct of Herodotus is probably to be found in his aversion to Cyrus, for having been the enslaver of his country. The Greek historian was a man of free and independent spirit, and could never brook the mention of the surrender of his native city, Halicarnassus, to the troops of Cyrus. But, allowing that heartlessness and cruelty are too often the accompaniments of mighty conquerors, and that very few escape their direful contagion; yet, when the worst is told about Cyrus, abundance of authentic facts remain to attest his worth, and to elevate his character above the standard of ordinary mortals. Xenophon informs us, that the seven last years of his full sovereignty this prince spent in peace and tranquillity at home, revered and beloved by all classes of his subjects. In his dying moments he was surrounded by his family, friends, and children; and delivered to them the noblest exhortations to the practice of piety, virtue, and concord. This testimony is in substance confirmed by the Persian historians, who relate, that, after a long and bloody war, Khosru, or Cyrus, subdued the empire of Turan, and made the city of Balk, in Chorasan, a royal residence, to keep in order his new subjects; that he repaid every family in Persia proper the amount of their war-taxes, out of the immense spoils which he had acquired by his conquests; that he endeavoured to promote peace and harmony between the Turanians and Iranians; that he regulated the pay of his soldiery, reformed civil and religious abuses throughout the provinces, and, at length, after a long and glorious reign, resigned the crown to his son Lohorasp, and retired to solitude, confessing that he had lived long enough for his own glory, and that it was then time for him to devote the remainder of his days to God. Saadi, in his Gulistan, copies the wise inscription which Cyrus ordered to be inscribed on his crown: “What avails a long life spent in the enjoyment of worldly grandeur, since others, mortal like ourselves, will one day trample under foot our pride! This crown, handed down to me from my predecessors, must soon pass in succession upon the head of many others.” In the last book of the “Cyropædia” we find the following devout thanksgivings to the gods: “I am abundantly thankful for being truly sensible of your care, and for never being elated by prosperity above my condition. I beseech you to prosper my children, wife, friends, and country. And for myself, I ask, that such as is the life ye have vouchsafed to me, such may be my end.” The reflections of Dr. Hales on this passage are very judicious: “Here, Xenophon, a polytheist himself, represents Cyrus praying to the gods in the plural number; but that he really prayed to one 286only, the patriarchal God, worshipped by his venerable ancestors, the Pischdadians, may appear from the watchword, or signal, which he gave to his soldiers before the great battle, in which Evil Merodach was slain:

ΖΕΥΣ ΣΩΤΗΡ ΚΑΙ ἩΓΕΜΩΝ.

“JOVE, OUR SAVIOUR AND LEADER.”

Who this god was, we learn from the preamble of his famous proclamation, permitting the Jews to return from the Babylonian captivity: ‘The Lord, the God of heaven, hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he hath charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem,’ &c, Ezra i, 1, 2. But where did the Lord, (Iahoh, or Jove) so charge him?--In that signal prophecy of Isaiah, predicting his name and his actions, about B. C. 712, above a century before his birth; a prophecy which was undoubtedly communicated to him by the venerable Prophet Daniel, the Archimagus, who saw the beginning of the Babylonish captivity, and also its end, here foretold to be effected by the instrumentality of Cyrus.”

5. Pliny notices the tomb of Cyrus at Passagardæ in Persia. Arrian and Strabo describe it; and they agree with Curtius, that Alexander the Great offered funeral honours to his shade there; that he opened the tomb, and found, not the treasures he expected, but a rotten shield, two Scythian bows, and a Persian scymetar. And Plutarch records the following inscription upon it, in his life of Alexander:--“O man, whoever thou art, and whenever thou comest, (for come, I know, thou wilt,) I am Cyrus, the founder of the Persian empire. Envy me not the little earth that covers my body.” Alexander was much affected at this inscription, which set before him, in so striking a light, the uncertainty and vicissitude of worldly things. And he placed the crown of gold which he wore, upon the tomb in which the body lay, wondering that a prince so renowned, and possessed of such immense treasures, had not been buried more sumptuously than if he had been a private person. Cyrus, indeed, in his last instructions to his children, desired that “his body, when he died, might not be deposited in gold or silver, nor in any other sumptuous monument, but committed, as soon as possible, to the ground.”

The observation which Dr. Hales here makes, is worthy of record:--“This is a most signal and extraordinary epitaph. It seems to have been designed as a useful memento mori, [memento of death,] for Alexander the Great, in the full pride of conquest, “whose coming” it predicts with a prophetic spirit, “For come I know thou wilt.” But how could Cyrus know of his coming?--Very easily. Daniel the Archimagus, his venerable friend, who warned the haughty Nebuchadnezzar, that “head of gold,” or founder of the Babylonian empire, that it should be subverted by “the breast and arms of silver,” Dan. ii, 37, 39, or “the Mede and the Persian,” Darius and Cyrus, as he more plainly told the impious Belshazzar, Dan. v, 28, we may rest assured, communicated to Cyrus also, the founder of the Persian empire, the symbolical vision of the goat, with the notable horn in his forehead, Alexander of Macedon coming swiftly from the west, to overturn the Persian empire, Daniel viii, 5, 8, under the last king Codomannus, the fourth from Darius Nothus, as afterward more distinctly explained, Dan. xi, 1, 4. Cyrus, therefore, decidedly addresses the short-lived conqueror, O man, whoever thou art, &c.

“Juvenal, in that noble satire, the tenth, verse 168, has a fine reflection on the vanity of Alexander’s wild ambition to conquer worlds, soon destined himself to be confined in a narrow coffin; by a pointed allusion to the epitaph on the tomb of Cyrus:--

Unus Pellæo Juveni non sufficit orbis;

Æstuat, infelix angusto limite mundi:

Cum tamen a figulis munitam intraverit urbem,

Sarcophago contentus erit.--Mors sola fatetur

Quantula sint hominum corpuscula!”

‘A single globe suffices not the Pellæan youth;

Discontented, he scorns the scanty limits of the world;

As if within a prison’s narrow bounds confined:

But when he shall enter the brick-walled city, [Babylon,]

A coffin will content him.--The epitaph alone owns,

How small are the diminutive bodies of men!’

“The emotion of Alexander, on visiting the tomb, and reading the inscription, is not less remarkable. He evidently applied to himself, as the destroyer, the awful rebuke of the founder of the Persian empire, for violating the sanctity of his tomb, from motives of profane curiosity, and perhaps of avarice. And we may justly consider the significant act of laying down his golden crown upon the tomb itself, as an amende honorable, a homage due to the offended shade of the pious and lowly-minded Cyrus the Great.” These reflections must close our account of one of the most remarkable characters that ever appeared among the eastern conquerors.

DAGON, דגון, corn, from דגן, or דג, a fish, god of the Philistines. It is the opinion of some that Dagon was represented like a woman, with the lower parts of a fish, like a triton or syren. Scripture shows clearly that the statue of Dagon was human, at least, the upper part of it, 1 Sam. v, 4, 5. A temple of Dagon at Gaza was pulled down by Samson, Judges xvi, 23, &c. In another, at Ashdod, the Philistines deposited the ark of God, 1 Sam. v, 1–3. A city in Judah was called Beth-Dagon; that is, the house, or temple, of Dagon, Joshua xv, 41; and another on the frontiers of Asher, Joshua xix, 27.

DALMANUTHA. St. Mark says that Jesus Christ embarked with his disciples on the lake of Tiberias, and came to Dalmanutha, Mark viii, 10, but St. Matthew calls it Magdala, Matt. xv, 39. It seems that Dalmanutha was near to Magdala, on the western side of the lake.

DALMATIA, a part of old Illyria, lying along the gulf of Venice. Titus preached here, 2 Tim. iv, 10.

DAMASCUS, a celebrated city of Asia, and anciently the capital of Syria, may be accounted one of the most venerable places in the world for its antiquity. It is supposed to have been founded by Ux, the son of Aram; and is, at 287least, known to have subsisted in the time of Abraham, Gen. xv, 2. It was the residence of the Syrian kings, during the space of three centuries; and experienced a number of vicissitudes in every period of its history. Its sovereign, Hadad, whom Josephus calls the first of its kings, was conquered by David, king of Israel. In the reign of Ahaz, it was taken by Tiglath Pileser, who slew its last king, Rezin, and added its provinces to the Assyrian empire. It was taken and plundered, also, by Sennacherib, Nebuchadnezzar, the generals of Alexander the Great, Judas Maccabeus, and at length by the Romans in the war conducted by Pompey against Tigranes, in the year before Christ, 65. During the time of the emperors, it was one of their principal arsenals in Asia, and is celebrated by the emperor Julian as, even in his day, “the eye of the whole east.” About the year 634, it was taken by the Saracen princes, who made it the place of their residence, till Bagdad was prepared for their reception; and, after suffering a variety of revolutions, it was taken and destroyed by Tamerlane, A. D. 1400. It was repaired by the Mamelukes, when they gained possession of Syria; but was wrested from them by the Turks, in 1506; and since that period has formed the capital of one of their pachalics. The modern city is delightfully situated about fifty miles from the sea, in a fertile and extensive plain, watered by the river which the Greeks called Chrysorrhoras, or “Golden River,” but which is known by the name of Barrady, and of which the ancient Abana and Pharpar are supposed to have been branches. The city is nearly two miles in length from its north-east to its north-west extremity; but of very inconsiderable breadth, especially near the middle of its extent, where its width is much contracted. It is surrounded by a circular wall, which is strong, though not lofty; but its suburbs are extensive and irregular. Its streets are narrow; and one of them, called Straight, mentioned in Acts ix, 11, still runs through the city about half a mile in length. The houses, and especially those which front the streets, are very indifferently built, chiefly of mud formed into the shape of bricks, and dried in the sun; but those toward the gardens, and in the squares, present a more handsome appearance. In these mud walls, however, the gates and doors are often adorned with marble portals, carved and inlaid with great beauty and variety; and the inside of the habitation, which is generally a large square court, is ornamented with fragrant trees and marble fountains, and surrounded with splendid apartments, furnished and painted in the highest style of luxury. The market places are well constructed, and adorned with a rich colonnade of variegated marble. The principal public buildings are, the castle, which is about three hundred and forty paces in length; the hospital, a charitable establishment for the reception of strangers, composing a large quadrangle lined with a colonnade, and roofed in small domes covered with lead; and the mosque, the entrance of which is supported by four large columns of red granite; the apartments in it are numerous and magnificent, and the top is covered with a cupola ornamented with two minarets.

Damascus is surrounded by a fruitful and delightful country, forming a plain nearly eighty miles in circumference; and the lands, most adjacent to the city, are formed into gardens of great extent, which are stored with fruit trees of every description. “No place in the world,” says Mr. Maundrell “can promise to the beholder at a distance a greater voluptuousness;” and he mentions a tradition of the Turks, that their prophet, when approaching Damascus, took his station upon a certain precipice, in order to view the city; and, after considering its ravishing beauty and delightful aspect, was unwilling to tempt his frailty by going farther; but instantly took his departure with this remark, that there was but one paradise designed for man, and that, for his part, he was resolved not to take his in this world. The air or water of Damascus, or both, are supposed to have a powerful effect in curing the leprosy, or, at least, in arresting its progress, while the patient remains in the place.

The Rev. James Conner visited Damascus in 1820, as an agent of the Church Missionary Society. He had a letter from the archbishop of Cyprus to Seraphim, patriarch of Antioch, the head of the Christian church in the east, who resides at Damascus. This good man received Mr. Conner in the most friendly manner; and expressed himself delighted with the system and operations of the Bible Society. He undertook to encourage and promote, to the utmost of his power, the sale and distribution of the Scriptures throughout the patriarchate; and, as a proof of his earnestness in the cause, he ordered, the next day, a number of letters to be prepared, and sent to his archbishops and bishops, urging them to promote the objects of the Bible Society in their respective stations.

DAMN, and DAMNATION, are words synonymous with condemn and condemnation. Generally speaking, the words are taken to denote the final and eternal punishment of the ungodly. These terms, however, sometimes occur in the New Testament in what may be termed a less strict, or secondary sense. Thus, when the Apostle says to the Romans, “He that doubteth,” namely, the lawfulness of what he is doing, “is damned if he eat,” Rom. xiv, 23; the meaning is, he stands condemned in his own mind. Again: when St. Paul tells the Corinthians, that “he that eateth and drinketh” of the Lord’s Supper “unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself,” 1 Cor. xi, 29; the original word, κρίμα, there is thought by many to import no more than temporal judgments, and that the Apostle explains himself in the same sense when he says, “For this cause many among you are weak and sickly, and many sleep,” or die. This is at least one mode of interpreting the “damnation” of which St. Paul here speaks; but probably the true sense is the bringing guilt upon the conscience, and thereby a liability, without remission, to future judgment.

288DAN, the fifth son of Jacob, Gen. xxx, 1–6. Dan had but one son, whose name was Hushim, Gen. xlvi, 23; yet he had a numerous posterity; for, on leaving Egypt, this tribe consisted of sixty-two thousand seven hundred men able to bear arms, Num. i, 38. Of Jacob’s blessing Dan, see Gen. xlix, 16, 17. They took Laish, Judges xviii, 1; Joshua xix, 47. They called the city Dan, after their progenitor. The city of Dan was situated at the northern extremity of the land of Israel: hence the phrase, “from Dan to Beersheba,” denoting the whole length of the land of promise. Here Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, set up one of his golden calves, 1 Kings xii, 29; and the other at Bethel.

DANCING. It is still the custom in the east to testify their respect for persons of distinction by music and dancing. When Baron Du Tott, who was sent by the French government to inspect their factories in the Levant, approached an encampment of Turcomans, between Aleppo and Alexandretta, the musicians of the different hordes turned out, playing and dancing before him all the time he and his escort were passing by their camp. Thus, it will be recollected, “the women came out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, with tabrets, with joy, and with instruments of music,” when he returned in triumph from the slaughter of the Philistines. In the oriental dances, in which the women engage by themselves, the lady of highest rank in the company takes the lead, and is followed by her companions, who imitate her steps, and if she sings, make up the chorus. The tunes are extremely gay and lively, yet with something in them wonderfully soft. The steps are varied according to the pleasure of her who leads the dance, but always in exact time. This statement may enable us to form a correct idea of the dance, which the women of Israel performed under the direction of Miriam, on the banks of the Red Sea. The prophetess, we are told, “took a timbrel in her hand, and all the women went out after her, with timbrels and dances.” She led the dance, while they imitated her steps, which were not conducted according to a set, well-known form, as in this country, but extemporaneous. The conjecture of Mr. Harmer is extremely probable, that David did not dance alone before the Lord, when he brought up the ark, but, as being the highest in rank, and more skilful than any of the people, he led the religious dance of the males.

DANIEL was a descendant of the kings of Judah, and is said to have been born at Upper Bethoron, in the territory of Ephraim. He was carried away captive to Babylon when he was about eighteen or twenty years of age, in the year 606 before the Christian æra. He was placed in the court of Nebuchadnezzar, and was afterward raised to situations of great rank and power, both in the empire of Babylon and of Persia. He lived to the end of the captivity, but being then nearly ninety years old, it is most probable that he did not return to Judea. It is generally believed that he died at Susa, soon after his last vision, which is dated in the third year of the reign of Cyrus. Daniel seems to have been the only prophet who enjoyed a great share of worldly prosperity; but amidst the corruptions of a licentious court he preserved his virtue and integrity inviolate, and no danger or temptation could divert him from the worship of the true God. The book of Daniel is a mixture of history and prophecy: in the first six chapters is recorded a variety of events which occurred in the reigns of Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, and Darius; and, in particular, the second chapter contains Nebuchadnezzar’s prophetic dream concerning the four great successive monarchies, and the everlasting kingdom of the Messiah, which dream God enabled Daniel to interpret. In the last six chapters we have a series of prophecies, revealed at different times, extending from the days of Daniel to the general resurrection. The Assyrian, the Persian, the Grecian, and the Roman empires, are all particularly described under appropriate characters; and it is expressly declared that the last of them was to be divided into ten lesser kingdoms; the time at which Christ was to appear is precisely fixed; the rise and fall of antichrist, and the duration of his power, are exactly determined; and the future restoration of the Jews, the victory of Christ over all his enemies, and the universal prevalence of true religion, are distinctly foretold, as being to precede the consummation of that stupendous plan of God, which “was laid before the foundation of the world,” and reaches to its dissolution. Part of this book is written in the Chaldaic language, namely, from the fourth verse of the second chapter to the end of the seventh chapter; these chapters relate chiefly to the affairs of Babylon, and it is probable that some passages were taken from the public registers. This book abounds with the most exalted sentiments of piety and devout gratitude; its style is clear, simple, and concise; and many of its prophecies are delivered in terms so plain and circumstantial, that some unbelievers have asserted, in opposition to the strongest evidence, that they were written after the events which they describe had taken place. With respect to the genuineness and authenticity of the hook of Daniel, there is abundance both of external and internal evidence; indeed all that can well be had or desired in a case of this nature: not only the testimony of the whole Jewish church and nation, who have constantly received this book as canonical, but of Josephus particularly, who recommends him as the greatest of the prophets; of the Jewish Targums and Talmuds, which frequently cite and appeal to his authority; of St. Paul and St. John, who have copied many of his prophecies; and of our Saviour himself, who cites his words, and styles him, “Daniel the prophet.” Nor is the internal less powerful and convincing than the external evidence; for the language, the style, the manner of writing, and all other internal marks and characters, are perfectly agreeable to that age; and finally he appears plainly and 289undeniably to have been a prophet by the exact accomplishment of his prophecies.

DARIUS was the name of several princes in history, some of whom are mentioned in Scripture.

1. Darius the Mede, spoken of in Daniel v, 31; ix, 1; xi, 1, &c, was the son of Astyages, king of the Medes, and brother to Mandane, the mother of Cyrus, and to Amyit, the mother of Evil-merodach, and grandmother of Belshazzar. Darius the Mede, therefore, was uncle by the mother’s side to Evil-merodach and Cyrus. The Septuagint, in Daniel vii, give him the name of Artaxerxes; the thirteenth, or apocryphal chapter of Daniel, calls him Astyages; and Xenophon designates him by the name of Cyaxares. He succeeded Belshazzar, king of Babylon, his nephew’s son, or his sister’s grandson, in the year of the world, 3448, according to Calmet, or in 3468, according to Usher. Daniel does not inform us of any previous war between them; but the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah supply this deficiency. Isa. xiii, xiv, xlv, xlvi, xlvii; Jer. l, li.

2. Darius, the son of Hystaspes, has been supposed by some, on the authority of Archbishop Usher and Calmet, to be the Ahasuerus of Scripture, and the husband of Esther. But Dr. Prideaux thinks, that Ahasuerus was Artaxerxes Longimanus. This prince recovered Babylon after a siege of twenty months. This city, which had been formerly the capital of the east, revolted from Persia, taking advantage of the revolutions that happened, first at the death of Cambyses, and afterward on the massacre of the Magi. The Babylonians employed four years in preparations, and when they thought that their city was furnished with provisions for a long time, they raised the standard of rebellion. Darius levied an army in great haste, and besieged Babylon. The Babylonians shut themselves up within their walls, whose height and thickness secured them from assault; and as they had nothing to fear but famine, they assembled all their women and children, and strangled them, each reserving only his most beloved wife, and one servant. Thus was fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, xlvii, 7–9. Some believe that the Jews were either expelled by the Babylonians, as being too much in the interest of Darius; or that, in obedience to the frequent admonitions of the prophets, they quitted that city when they saw the people determined to rebel, Isa. xlviii, 20; Jer. l, 8; li, 6–9; Zech. xi, 6, 7. Darius lay twenty months before Babylon, without making any considerable progress; but, at length, Zopyrus, one of his generals, obtained possession of the city by stratagem. Darius ordered the hundred gates of brass to be taken away, according to the prediction of Jeremiah, li, 58, “Thus saith the Lord, The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken, and her high gates shall be burnt with fire, and the people shall labour in vain.” This is related in Herodotus.

3. Darius Codomanus was of the royal family of Persia, but very remote from the crown. He was in a low condition, when Bagoas, the eunuch, who had procured the destruction of two kings, Ochus and Arses, placed him on the throne. His true name was Codoman, and he did not take that of Darius till he was king. He was descended from Darius Nothus, whose son, Ostanes, was father to Arsames, that begat Codomanus. He was at first only a courier to the emperor Ochus. But one day when he was at this prince’s army, one of their enemies challenged the bravest of the Persians. Codomanus offered himself for the combat, and overcame the challenger, and was made governor of Armenia. From this situation, Bagoas placed him on the throne of Persia. Alexander the Great invaded the Persian empire, and defeated Darius in three successive battles. After the third battle, Darius fled toward Media, in hopes of raising another army. At Ecbatana, the capital of Media, he gathered the remains of his forces, and some new levies. Alexander having wintered at Babylon and Persepolis, took the field in search of Darius, who quitted Ecbatana, with an intention of retreating into Bactria; but, changing his resolution, Darius stopped short, and determined to hazard a battle, though his army at this time consisted only of forty thousand men. While he was preparing for this conflict, Bessus, governor of Bactria, and Narbazanes, a grandee of Persia, seized him, loaded him with chains, forced him into a covered chariot, and fled, carrying him with them toward Bactria. If Alexander pursued them, they intended to purchase their peace by delivering Darius into his hands; but if not, to kill him, seize the crown, and renew the war. Eight days after their departure, Alexander arrived at Ecbatana, and set out in pursuit of them, which he continued for eleven days: at length he stopped at Rages, in Media, despairing to overtake Darius. Thence he went into Parthia, where he learned what had happened to that unfortunate prince. After a precipitate march of many days, he overtook the traitors, who, seeing themselves pressed, endeavoured to compel Darius to get upon horseback, and save himself with them; but he refusing, they stabbed him in several places, and left him expiring in his chariot. He was dead when Alexander arrived, who could not forbear weeping at so sad a spectacle. Alexander covered Darius with his own cloak, and sent him to Sisygambis his wife, that she might bury him in the tombs of the kings of Persia. Thus were verified the prophecies of Daniel, viii, who had foretold the destruction of the Persian monarchy, under the symbol of a ram, which butted with its horns westward, northward, and southward, and which nothing could resist; but a goat which had a very large horn between his eyes, and which denoted Alexander the Great, came from the west, and overran the world without touching the earth; springing forward with impetuosity, the goat ran against the ram with all his force, attacked him with fury, struck him, broke his two horns, trampled him under foot, and no one could rescue the ram. Nothing can be clearer than these prophecies.

290DARKNESS, the absence of light. “Darkness was upon the face of the deep,” Gen. i, 2; that is, the chaos was immersed in thick darkness, because light was withheld from it. The most terrible darkness was that brought on Egypt as a plague; it was so thick as to be, as it were, palpable; so horrible, that no one durst stir out of his place; and so lasting, that it endured three days and three nights, Exod. x, 21, 22; Wisdom xvii, 2, 3. The darkness at our Saviour’s death began at the sixth hour, or noon, and ended at the third hour, or three o’clock in the afternoon. Thus it lasted almost the whole time he was on the cross; compare Matt. xxvii, 45, with John xix, 14, and Mark xv, 25. Origen, Maldonatus, Erasmus, Vatablus, and others, were of opinion that this darkness covered Judea only; which is sometimes called the whole earth; that is, the whole country. Chrysostom, Euthymius, Theophylact, and others, thought it extended over a hemisphere. Origen says it was caused by a thick mist, which precluded the sight of the sun. That it was preternatural is certain, for, the moon being at full, a natural eclipse of the sun was impossible. Darkness is sometimes used metaphorically for death. “The land of darkness” is the grave, Job x, 22; Psalm cvii, 10. It is also used to denote misfortunes and calamities: “A day of darkness” is a day of affliction, Esther xi, 8. “Let that day be darkness; let darkness stain it,”--let it be reckoned among the unfortunate days, Job iii, 4, 5. The expressions, “I will cover the heavens with darkness;” “The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood,” &c, signify very great political calamities, involving the overthrow of kings, princes, and nobles, represented by the luminaries of heaven. In a moral sense, darkness denotes ignorance and vice; hence “the children of light,” in opposition to “the children of darkness,” are the righteous distinguished from the wicked.

DAVID, the celebrated king of Israel, was the youngest son of Jesse, of the tribe of Judah, and was born 1085 years before Christ. The following is an abstract of his history: He was chosen of God to be king of Israel, and at his command was anointed to this dignity by the hands of Samuel, a venerable prophet, in the room of Saul; who had been rejected for his disobedience to the divine orders, in feloniously seizing, to his own use the prey of an enemy, which God, the supreme King of Israel, had devoted to destruction. He was introduced to court as a man expert in music, a singularly valiant man, a man of war, prudent in matters, of a comely person, and one favoured of the Lord. By his skill in music, he relieved Saul under a melancholy indisposition that had seized him, was highly beloved by his royal master, and made one of his guards. In a war with the Philistines he accepted the challenge of a gigantic champion, who defied the armies of Israel, and being skilful at the sling, he slew him with a stone, returned safely with his head, and thus secured to his prince an easy victory over his country’s enemies. The reputation he gained, by this glorious action, raised an incurable jealousy and resentment against him, in the mind of the king his master; who made two unsuccessful attempts to murder him. In his exalted station, and amidst the dangers that encompassed him, he behaved with singular prudence, so that he was in high esteem both in the court and camp. The modesty and prudence of his behaviour, and his approved courage and resolution, gained him the confidence and friendship of Jonathan, the king’s eldest son, “who loved him as his own soul,” became his advocate with his father, and obtained from him a promise, confirmed by an oath, that he would no more attempt to destroy him. But Saul’s jealousy returned by a fresh victory David gained over the Philistines; who, finding the king was determined to seek his life, retired from court, and was dismissed in peace by Jonathan, after a solemn renewal of their friendship, to provide for his own safety. In this state of banishment, there resorted to him companies of men, who were uneasy in their circumstances, oppressed by their creditors, or discontented with Saul’s tyrannical government, to the number of six hundred men. These he kept in the most excellent order, and by their valour he gained signal advantages for his country; but never employed them in rebellion against the king, or in a single instance to distress or subvert his government. On the contrary such was the veneration he paid him, and such the generosity of his temper, that though it was thrice in his power to have him cut off, he spared him, and was determined never to destroy him, whom God had constituted the king of Israel. His friendship with Jonathan, the king’s son, was a friendship of strict honour, for he never seduced him from his allegiance and filial duty. Being provoked by a churlish farmer, who evil treated and abused his messengers, he, in the warmth of his temper, swore he would destroy him and his family; but was immediately pacified by the address and prudence of a wife, of whom the wretch was unworthy: her he sent in peace and honour to her family, and blessed for her advice, and keeping him from avenging himself with his own hand. Being forced to banish himself into an enemy’s country, he was faithful to the prince who protected him: and, at the same time, mindful of the interest of his own nation, he cut off many of those who had harassed and plundered his fellow subjects. When pressed by the king, into whose dominions he retired, to join in a war against his own country and father-in-law, he prudently gave him such an answer as his situation required; neither promising the aid demanded of him, nor tying up his hands from serving his own prince, and the army that fought under him; only assuring him in general, that he had never done any thing that could give him just reason to think he would refuse to assist him against his enemies. Upon the death of Saul, he cut off the Amalekite who came to make a merit of having slain him; and by the immediate direction of God, who had promised him the succession, went up to Hebron, where, on a free election, he was 291anointed king over the house of Judah; and after about a seven years’ contest, he was unanimously chosen king by all the tribes of Israel, “according to the word of the Lord by Samuel.” As king of Israel, he administered justice and judgment to all his people, was a prince of courage, and great military prudence and conduct; had frequent wars with the neighbouring nations, to which he was generally forced by their invading his dominions, and plundering his subjects. Against them he never lost a battle; he never besieged a city without taking it; nor, as for any thing that can be proved, used any severities against those he conquered, beyond what the law of arms allowed, his own safety required, or the cruelties of his enemies rendered just, by way of retaliation; enriching his people by the spoils he took, and providing large stores of every thing necessary for the magnificent temple he intended to erect, in honour of the God of Israel. Having rescued Jerusalem out of the hands of the Jebusites, he made it the capital of his kingdom, and the place of his residence; and being willing to honour it with the presence of the ark of God, he brought it to Jerusalem in triumph, and divesting himself of his royal robes, out of reverence to God, he clothed himself in the habit of his ministers, and with them expressed his joy by dancing and music; contemned only by one haughty woman; whom, as a just punishment of her insolence, he seems ever after to have separated from his bed. Though his crimes were henious, and highly aggravated, in the affair of Uriah and Bathsheba, he patiently endured reproof, humbly submitted to the punishment appointed him, deeply repented, and obtained mercy and forgiveness from God, though not without some severe marks of his displeasure, for the grievous offences of which he had been guilty. A rebellion was raised against him by his son Absalom. When forced by it to depart from Jerusalem, a circumstance most pathetically described by the sacred historian, he prevented the just punishment of Shimei, a wretch who cursed and stoned him. When restored to his throne, he spared him upon his submission, and would not permit a single man to be put to death in Israel upon account of this treason. He, with a noble confidence, made the commander of the rebel forces general of his own army, in the room of Joab, whom he intended to call to an account for murder and other crimes. After this, when obliged, by the command of God, to give up some of Saul’s family to justice, for the murder of the Gibeonites, he spared Mephibosheth, Micah, and his family, the male descendants of Saul and Jonathan, who alone could have any pretence to dispute the crown with him, and surrendered only Saul’s bastard children, and those of his daughter by Adriel, who had no right or possible claim to the throne, and could never give him any uneasiness in the possession of it; and thus showed his inviolable regard for his oaths, his tenderness to Saul, and the warmth of his gratitude and friendship to Jonathan. In the close of his life, and in the near prospect of death, to demonstrate his love of justice, he charged Solomon to punish with death Joab, for the base murder of two great men, whom he assassinated under the pretence of peace and friendship. To this catalogue of his noble actions must be added, that he gave the most shining and indisputable proofs of an undissembled reverence for, and sincere piety to, God; ever obeying the direction of his prophets, worshipping him alone, to the exclusion of all idols, throughout the whole of his life, and making the wisest settlement to perpetuate the worship of the same God, through all succeeding generations.