Female Scripture Biography Volume II Part 19

[19]: Bishop Hall.

[20]: Mosheim's Eccl. Hist. vol. i. p. 432. ii. 56, 71.

[21]: Bossuet, Serm. pour la Fete de la Conception.

[22]: The bishop of Meux, who has been already quoted, does not fail to suggest some delectable additions to her t.i.tles. He speaks in one of his discourses of her "sacred body, the throne of chast.i.ty, the temple of incarnate wisdom," &c. but the whole paragraph shall be introduced, though perhaps it had better remain untranslated:--"Le corps sacre de Marie, le trone de la chast.i.te, le temple de la sagesse incarnee, l'organe du Saint-Esprit, et le siege de la vertu du Tres-Haut, n'a pas du demeurer dans le tombeau; et le triomphe de Marie seroit imperfait, s'il s'accomplissoit sans sa sainte chair, qui a ete comme la source de sa gloire. Venez done, Vierges de Jesus Christ, chastes epouses du Sauveur des ames, venez admirer les beautes de cette chair virginale, et contempler trois merveilles que la sainte virginite opere sur elle. La sainte virginite la preserve de corruption; et ainsi elle lui conserve l'etre: la sainte virginite lui attire une influence celeste, qui la fait ressusciter avant le temps: ainsi elle lui rend la vie: la sainte virginite repand sur elle de toutes parts une lumiere divine; et ainsi elle lui donne la gloire. C'est ce qu'il nous faut expliquer par ordre;"

and he _does_ explain these _trois merveilles_ in a manner well calculated to satisfy every Papist, and to sicken every Protestant. Vide _Serm. pour l'a.s.sumpt. de la Vierge_, P. 2.

[23]: Quoted by M. Pascal, in the ninth of his "Lettres Provinciales."

Consult also "the Life of Melancthon," by the author of this work, chap.

iii.

[24]: Picart, Ceremonies et Coutumes de tous les Peuples da Monde, tom. i.

[25]: Dr. Johnson

[26]: Dr. Johnson.

[27]: Gen. x.x.xiii. 18, 19, Josh. xxiv. 32. This place was the metropolis of the tribe of Ephraim. It was destroyed by Abimelech, but rebuilt by Jeroboam, who made it the seat of the kingdom of Israel. It was afterward called _Neapolis_; and Vespasian or Domitian having established a colony there, it received the Roman appellation of _Flavia Cesarea_.

Herod gave it the name of _Sebaste_.

[28]: It stood two hundred years. JOSEPH. Antiq. lib. xiii. cap. 18.

[29]: JUST. MART. Apol. II.

[30]: "_Living water, ?d?? ???. It may surprise an English reader, unacquainted with the Oriental idiom, that this woman, who appears by the sequel to have totally misunderstood our Lord, did not ask what he meant by _living water,_ but proceeded on the supposition that she understood him perfectly; and only did not conceive how, without some vessel for drawing and containing that water, he could provide her with it to drink. The truth is, the expression is ambiguous. In the most familiar acceptation, _living water_ meant no more than running water. In this sense, the water of springs and rivers would be denominated _living_, as that of cisterns and lakes would be called _dead_, because motionless. Thus, Gen. xxvi. 19. we are told, that Isaac's servants digged in the valley, and found there a well of springing water. It is _living water,_ both in the Hebrew and the Greek, as marked on the margin of our Bibles. Thus also Lev. xiv. 5. what is rendered _running water_ in the English Bible, is in both these languages _living water_. Nay, this use was not unknown to the Latins, as may be proved from Virgil and Ovid. In this pa.s.sage, however, our Lord uses the expression in the more sublime sense of divine teaching, but was mistaken by the woman as using it in the popular acceptation." CAMPBELL'S Trans. of the Four Gospels, vol. ii. p. 518, _notes_.

[31]: "It is no unusual practice with the Jews; we often have heard of it.

R. Jonathan and R. Jannai were sitting together; there came a certain man, [Hebrew], and _kissed the feet_ of R. Jonathan." Again, "R. Meir stood up, and Bar Chama, [Hebrew], _kissed his knees_, or _feet_. This custom was also used by the Greeks and Romans, among their civilities and in their salutations." GILL in loc. Consult also HARMER'S Observations, vol. ii. chap. 6.

[32]: ROBINSON.

[33]: "There is in these denominations no inconsistency. By birth she was of _Syrophenicia_, so the country about Tyre and Sidon was denominated, by descent of _Canaan_, as most of the Tyrians and Sidonians originally were; and by religion a _Greek_, according to the Jewish manner of distinguis.h.i.+ng between themselves and idolaters. Ever since the Macedonian conquests, Greek became a common name for idolater, or at least one uncirc.u.mcised, and was held equivalent to Gentile. Of this we have many examples in Paul's epistles, and in the Acts. _Jews and Greeks_, ?????e?, are the same with _Jews and Gentiles_" CAMPBELL'S Transl. of the Gospels in loc. _notes_.

[34]: The question has been often agitated, whether the possessions of the New Testament are to be ascribed to demoniacal influence, or whether they are so represented in conformity to the popular prejudices of the age, being in reality nothing more than diseases. Surely a distinct existence must be attributed to these, as evil spirits, when we consider their number, the actions particularly ascribed to them, the conversation which they held respecting themselves, the Son of G.o.d, and their own destiny, the desires and pa.s.sions they are represented as manifesting, and various other circ.u.mstances of their history. Is it credible, that a mere _disease_ should be said to have addressed Christ in such language as the following: "What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of G.o.d? Art thou come hither to torment us before the time?" Comp. Matt. viii. 29, and the succeeding verses.

[35]: Bishop Hall.

[36]: Bishop Hall

[37]: Doddridge on the Care of the Soul.

[38]: The whole narrative is contained in the eleventh chapter of John, and this reference in the fifth verse.

[39]: Three hundred Roman pence, or denarii, amount to about _nine pounds seven s.h.i.+llings and sixpence_ sterling.

[40]: Bishop Hall.

[41]: The farthing was a _quadrant_, or fourth part of a Roman _a.s.sis_, a coin of similar value with the teta?t?????? of the Greeks, or the fourth part of an obolus (the least Athenian coin,) that is, two bra.s.s pieces.

These were the same with the _prutas_ of the Jews, two of which make a _quardrant_.

[42]: Barrow's Works, vol. i. p. 457, fol.

[43]: Paley's Moral Philosophy, vol. i. p. 254--257.

[44]: Sermon on the Duty and Reward of Bounty to the Poor.

[45]: Acts xvi. "Philippi was a city of Macedonia near the confines of Thrace. It lies near the sea, as it were at the head of the Archipelago.

It was so named from Philip, king' of Macedon, who repaired and enlarged it; but its more ancient name was Dathos. It was also called Crenides from its numerous springs, whence flowed the river mentioned Acts xvi. 13; ?????, _kreenee_, in Greek meaning a spring. Julius Caesar is said to have planted there a Roman colony; and the neighbourhood of Philippi was the scene of conflict between him and Pompey, and afterward between his a.s.sa.s.sinators, Brutus and Ca.s.sius, and his partizans, Antony and Octavius. It is said still to retain some monuments of its former splendour, although it is much depopulated and sunk to decay." Bevan's Life of the Apostle Paul, p. 367.

[46]: For information on the subject of proselytes, consult Dr. Gill's "Dissertation concerning the Baptism of Jewish Proselytes," chap. i. in vol. iii, of his Body of Divinity.

[47]: GREGORY'S Evidences, Doctrines, and Duties of the Christian Religion, vol. ii. pp. 127, 128.

[48]: Bp. Taylor's Holy Living, Chap. i. sect. 3.

[49]: The purple die is called in I Maccab. iv. 23, _purple of the sea,_ or _sea purple_; it being the blood or juice of a turbinated sh.e.l.l-fish, which the Jews call [Hebrew] _Chalson_; this they speak of as a sh.e.l.l-fish. Hence those words 'Go and learn of the _Chalson_, for all the while it grows, its sh.e.l.l grows with it:' and that purple was died with the blood of it, appears from the following instances: _The best fruits in the land_, Gen. xliii. 11, are interpreted, the things that are the most famous in the world, as the Chalson, _&c,_ with whose blood, as the gloss on the pa.s.sage says, they die purple: and the purple died with this was very valuable, and fetched a good price. The tribe of _Zebulon_ is represented as complaining to G.o.d, that he had given to their brethren fields and vineyards, to them mountains and hills; to their brethren lands, to them seas and rivers: to which it is replied, All will stand in need of thee because of Chalson; as it is said, Deut. x.x.xiii. 19 _They shall suck of the abundance of the seas_; the gloss upon it, interpreting the word _Chalson_ is, it comes out of the sea to the mountains, and with its blood they die purple, which is sold at a very dear price.... It may be further observed, that the fringes which the Jews wore upon their garments, had on them a riband of blue or purple. Numb. xv. 38, for the word there used is by the Septuagint rendered _the purple_, in Numb. iv.

7, and sometimes _hyacinth_; and the whole fringe was by the Jews called [Hebrew], _purple_. Hence it is said, 'Does not every one that puts on the purple (i.e. the fringes on his garments) in Jerusalem make men to wonder? and a little after, the former saints or religious men, when they had wove in it (the garment) three parts, they put on it [Hebrew], _the purple_. And there were persons who traded in these things, and were called, [Hebrew], _sellers of purple_, as here; that is, for the _tzitzith_, or fringes for the borders of the garments, on which the riband of blue or purple was put, as the gloss explains it. The Jews were very curious about the colour and the dying of it, that it should be a colour that would hold and not change, and that the riband be died on purpose for that use. Maimonides gives rules for the dying of it, and they were no less careful of whom they bought it; for they say that _the purple_ was not to be bought, but of an approved person, or one that was authorized for that purpose; and a scruple is raised by one, whether he had done right or no in buying it of the family of a doctor deceased. Now, since Lydia might be a Jewess, or, at least, as appears by what follows, was a proselytess of the Jewish religion, this might he her business, to sell the purple for their fringes, and, it may be, the fringes themselves. GILL in loc.

[50]: Eighth Report of the British and Foreign Bible Society.

[51]: Herod. Euterpe.

[52]: Tacit. de Moribus Germanoram, chap, xviii. xix.

[53]: Tacit. Hist.

[54]: Xenophon.

[55]: Plut. in Solone.

[56]: DIONYSUS HALICARN. ii. c. 25.

[57]: Cranz's Greenland.

[58]: Georgi's Description of the Russian Nations. Weber's Russia.

[59]: Consult Steller.

[60]: Weber and Georgi.

[61]: Clarke's Travels, part i. p. 35, 4to.

[62]: Thornton's Present State of Turkey, (1807) 4to. p. 376.

[63]: Collin's Voyages, 1807, p. 152.

[64]: Peyssonel II. p. 246.