measure the whole city; and the prophecy explains itself, that it is in order to have Jerusalem newly inhabited.

The profane authors have expressions which shew, that a measuring reed or line, is to take possession of the things measured.* And hence, from P, a cane or reed, comes P, to acquire or possess.

This use of a line or reed explains the Kavov, or rule upon which St. Paul argues, 2 Cor. x. 13, 16; the said rule signifying those churches to which he had the sole right by first occupation.

Staff of reed, is a support or assistance that will not last long or be firm: as in Ezek. xxix. 6; 2 Kings xviii. 21. A golden reed for measuring, denotes that what is measured by it shall be glorious and permanent.

RESURRECTION, when used symbolically, signifies, according to the Oriental Interpreters, a recovery of such rights and liberties as have been taken away, and a deliverance from war, persecution, affliction, and bondage.

The Indian, in ch. 5, saith, "That to dream of seeing persons rise from the dead, denotes that there shall be a performance of justice in that place, which is the scene of the vision."

The Persian, in ch. vi. saith, “That such a dream signifies a freedom from slavery and afflictions." And the Egyptian, ch. vii., "That it signifies a release of captives, and a deliverance from war."

What is said in Ezekiel, xxxvii. 11, 14, is altogether conformable to these notions. The resurrection there spoken of being to be understood, as it is there also explained, concerning a deliverance of the Jews from thraldom and captivity, and a restoration of them to their own land. For when resurrection is spoken of a political body,

* See the Oracle given to the Lacedemonians in Herodotus, L. i. c. 66; L. ii. c. 6. Stephan. de Urb. v. Teyéa. Suid. v. Exovos.

it is to be understood proportionably of a political resurrection of that body in the like power. And so Latin authors have used the word resurgo; as appears from Ovid,* Pliny,t and Terence.‡

To RIDE. To what has been said concerning Riding, under the word HORSE, may be added the two following stories.

The first is out of Procopius,§ who says, he heard a Roman senator say, that in the times of Athalaric, who reigned in Italy, a herd of oxen passing through the market, one of them rid a brazen bull, and that a Tuscan peasant said thereupon, that some time or other an eunuch should subdue the tyrant of Italy. This, he says, was fulfilled by Narses an eunuch, general under Justinian.

The next is a story out of the Turkish history. That nation still minds dreams, and some of them study very much the symbolical language. The story is of Othman the 2d in these words :-" One thing is worthy of note; a little before this tumult happened, Othman dreamed that he rid a camel, and being mounted he could not force him to go by fair means or stripes, and that then descending in a rage to revenge it with his sword, the body of the beast vanished, leaving in his hand only the head and bridle; at which dream being exceedingly troubled, he the next day sends for one of his wizards to interpret it; but he refused, persuading him to apply himself to the Mufti, which he did, and had this interpretation viz. That the camel signified his empire: his riding, his abuse in government; his descension or alighting, his deposing; the vanishing of the body of the beast, the revolt of his subjects; the head and bridle remaining in his hand, only a bare title; and that he should shortly

*Ovid. Fast. L. i. ver. 523.

Terent. Hecyr. Act. v. Sc. iv. ver. 12. § Procop. Hist. Mixt. c. xxi.

† Plin. N. Hist. L. xv. c. 32.

die and lose his empire; the empty name only of emperor accompanying him to his grave.”

ROD, or SCEPTRE, or STAFF, is the symbol of power and government; and so is taken for a king or powerful man. It is so explained by the Oneirocritics in chaps. cxxi. clx. and ccxv. And is so taken in Eschylus.*

In Latin authors sceptrum and virga do likewise often denote power.

In Isa. x. 5, the Assyrian is called "the rod of God's anger." In Jer. i. 11, "A rod of an almond tree," is explained, by the Targum, of a king hastening to destroy; because the pw, almond tree, is a hasty budder, having its name from 7pw, to hasten, or to do evil, or to watch for that purpose; as in Isa. xxix. 20.

Amongst the Pagans, the magicians and augurs in their divinations made use of a rod, sceptre, or staff, which they commonly pretended was given them by some god for that purpose. And thus when Hesiod pretends that he was inspired by the Muses, he says they gave him a sceptre of bay‡. And Pallas herself, in Homer,§ makes use of a rod to act the magical trick of changing Ulysses into a beggar and again to restore him. And thus, in opposition to the rods of the magicians which they used in their enchantments, God commanded Moses to make use of his rod or walking-staff, in the working of the miracles in Egypt; and which is therefore called, in Exod. xvii. 9, "the rod of God."

As to the mantical rod, or staff, amongst the heathen, there is a gradation of its power in the history of Tiresias. When Tiresias was alive, and lost his eyes, but had given him, instead thereof, the faculty of a second sight, that

* Esch. Suppl. ver. 255.

† See Jamblich. de Myster. Æg. § iii. c. 11.

Hesiod, Theogon. ver. 30.

|| Hom. Odyss. π. ver. 172.

Hom. Odyss. ». ver. 429; π ver. 456.

is, of prophetical visions and divination; he had at the same time a blue staff delivered, which was a badge thereof. When he was dead, and an oracle was set up in his name, Homer* takes from thence an occasion to inform us, that Proserpina had given his soul an eminent privilege above all others, still to have wisdom, that is, knowledge of future things: and for that reason Ulysses in the Necromancy was only to consult that soul, which alone was able to give him a satisfactory oracle. When therefore that soul appears, Homer observes that it had a golden sceptre ;† which is therefore the badge of the power of divination which Proserpina had given him. Now a golden rod for divination suits the immortal state of the soul, and shews, that by the golden sceptre, Homer understood that Tiresias had thereby received some more eminent and durable power of Divination than he had when he was alive, and had only a plain mantical rod or staff; and that the oracle of Tiresias would subsist perpetually. Wherein, though Homer was mistaken, that oracle having ceased before Plutarch's time, yet the poet spake according to his conceptions of the things. So that Tiresias, when dead, has a suitable symbol of divination among the souls, as Homer§ observes, that Mercury had an enchanting rod of gold to conduct the souls to hell, and perform some other feats, but not to divine; Apollo who gave it him having made that exception.||

The Egyptian hieroglyphic of "a sceptre with an eye on the top of it," denoted a wise king or government.

In Ezekiel xxxvii. 16, a rod, from the allusion of the Hebrew name of it, to that of a tribe which is w, is used symbolically with the name of Judah, to signify that tribe, with all its adherents; as another, with the name of Ephraim, to denote all the apostate Israelites.

*Hom. Odyss. x. ver. 493, &c.

Plutarch. de Def. Orac. p. 293.

† Hom. Odyss. λ. ver. 91.

§ Hom. Odyss. w. ver. 3. Hor. L. i. Od. x. Hom. Hym. in Merc. ver. 530, &c.

S.

SACKCLOTH. See under GARMENTS.

SALT hinders flesh from corruption, and makes it keep; and is therefore used sometimes to signify incorruption, eternity, perpetual duration. Thus, in Numb. xviii. 19,"All the heave-offerings of the holy things, which the children of Israel offer unto the Lord, have I given thee, and thy sons, and thy daughters with thee, by a statute for ever it is a covenant of salt for ever." So again, 2 Chron. xiii. 5, The Lord God of Israel gave the kingdom to David for ever by a covenant of salt." And thus Lot's wife being changed into a pillar of salt, symbolically shewed, that she was a standing or perpetual monument of the judgment of God against those that mistrust his power and goodness.

Agreeably to this is our Saviour's discourse, in Mark ix. 48, 49; he says, that the torments of the wicked shall be like that of those that are gnawn by an immortal worm, which relates to their conscience; and that they shall be tormented also by an unquenchable fire, which relates to their body. He then proceeds, "For every one shall be salted with fire," i. e. every one shall be salted with that very fire which torments him.

This is to prevent an objection, How can their body subsist therein? Yes, says he, because that fire shall have a salt therein, which will make their body incorruptible. Then he adds, by way of proof and illustration; " and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt;" that is, the wicked shall be made, in that torment of fire, a sacrifice of everlasting holocaust to the Divine justice, God having given an illustration and proof thereof in the typical law, having therein commanded that all sacrifices should be salted which were offered by fire, Lev. ii. 13; Ezek. xliii. 24.