used for the church or nation of the Jews. Thus in Ezekiel, ch. xvi. there is a long description of that people under the symbol of a female child, growing up by several degrees to the stature of a woman, and then married to God, by entering into covenant with him. And therefore when the Israelites acted contrary to that covenant, by forsaking God and following idols, then they became properly represented by the symbol of an adulteress or harlot, that offers herself to all comers; Ezek. xvi. 32, 38; xxiii. 45; Hosea iii. 1 ; Isa. i. 21; Jer. ii. 20; Ezek. xvi. 15, 16, 28, 35, &c. Hosea i. 2. And adultery itself, or fornication in a married state, becomes the symbol of idolatry, as in Jer. iii, 8, 9; Ezek. xxiii. 37, and ch. xvi. 26, 29. There is a very mysterious prophecy in Zech. v. 5, &c. where a woman is represented as sitting in an ephah, and as carried through the air by two others. It is not easy to say what meaning should be attached to it. Newcome says, "The meaning of the vision seems to be, that the Babylonish captivity had happened on account of the wickedness committed by the Jews; and that a like dispersion would befal them, if they relapsed into like crimes." Thus the whole chapter is an awful admonition that multiplied curses, and particularly dispersion and captivity, would be the punishment of national guilt. But Capellus's interpretation well deserves attention. He considers verse 8, as denoting that God treads on the neck of wickedness, and restrains it from expatiating; and verse 9, 10, 11, as signifying that God was propitious to the Jews, and transferred the punishment of iniquity to the Babylonians, whom the weight of the Divine vengeance should ever depress. It may be added to the remark of this critic, that Babylon was soon to suffer a signal calamity from the reigning Persian monarch. See a dissertation on this subject in the Emblemata Sacra of Ewaldus, v. 3, p. 508, &c. For an explanation of that other vision in Rev. xii. 1, &c. see the Dissertation of the same author, and Lowman on the Revel. in loc. where the church is represented by the figure of a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars. Woman is sometimes used metaphorically for weak and effeminate persons, as Isa. iii. 12; xix. 16; Jer. 1. 37; li. 30; Nahum iii. 13. WRITE, signifies to publish or notify, because this is the first intention of writing; and at first no writings were made but upon pillars or other monuments, merely to notify things. Thus when God says in Isaiah lxv. 6, " Behold it is written before me;" it immediately follows as synonymous, "I will not keep silence." And in Jeremiah xxii. 30, it is said, "Write this man childless;" i. e. publish and let all men know, that this man shall be childless. And hence, because writing is publishing, therefore an author not read, is, with Martial, one that hath not written, "Versiculos in me narratur scribere Cinna, Non scribit, cujus carmina nemo legit." By the notification of things, the effect intended is brought about; and in this sense, to write is to effect. Solomon says, Prov. vii. 3, "Bind my words upon thy fingers, Write them upon the tablet of thine heart." He of course meant that such precepts should be understood figuratively; and yet it was on such texts as these that the Pharisees founded their practice of binding Phylacteries upon their foreheads; See Exod. xiii. 16; Deut. vi. 5; xi. 18. And hence, perhaps, also the popular phrase among us, of having a thing at the finger's ends, when we are perfectly acquainted with it. (Durell.) K k ERRATA. Introduction, p. 5. The Author was led to class "Walchii Antiquitates Symbolicæ," among the works illustrative of this subject, merely from its title, having never been able to meet with it. He now, however, suspects, that it relates rather to Ancient Creeds. Respecting the others, there is no error. P. 134, for 2 Lam. read 2 Sam. P. 278, for 2 Lam. read 2 Sam. P. 168, for Diodores, read Diodorus, P. 350, for Thacemas, read Thaumas, Some other mistakes have occurred owing to the Author's distance from the press, but he hopes none of material importance. |