glected; but the attempt of the Apostle to repeat the proftration, (for he would have done it a fecond time,) fufficiently fhewed, one would imagine, that the Apostle did not think the Angel rejected it as an idolatrous piece of refpect. What a ftrange interpretation must that be, which supposes St. John, a Jew by defcent, a mortal enemy in confequence by birth to all idolatry; a zealous preacher against it, through a very long life; who finished one of his epiftles with these very words, "Little children,

keep yourselves from idols," as defirous to have this perpetually fixed on their memories, whatever elfe they forgot; fhould, when fuffering in Patmos for the Lord Jefus; and when bleffed with the influences of the prophetic Spirit; attempt to do an idolatrous action, and to repeat that attempt in oppofition to the checks of his celeftial teacher! Nothing fure can be more inconceivable. At the fame time nothing is easier than the true interpretation-Smit with veneration for his angelic inftructor, and full of gratitude towards him for what he had fhewn him, he fell, according to the custom of his nation, at his feet to do him reverence: "See thou do "it not," faid the Angel, it is not to me these thanks are due, I have in this been only fulfilling the orders of him who is my Lord as well as yours; worship God" therefore, to whom in juftice you ought to afcribe thefe illuminations. Beauteous was this turning away of the An

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X.

gel from him in the Apostle's eyes, and from the additional force of this graceful action, as well as from a lively fenfe, that, though honours are ultimately due to God, as the original author of every good gift, and in particular of intellectual lights, yet that it was fit to express a reverence too to them that are the inftruments of conveying them to us, St. John, upon fome farther revelation of the Angel, would have again thrown himself at his feet, but found the Angel perfevering in that most amiable and devout modefty-" Worship God."

OBSERVATION XV.

Thevenot remarked, in the paffage I cited under the laft Obfervation, that the people of Conftantinople wished the Grand Signior, when he faluted them as he rode through their streets, all happiness and profperity, with a low and refpectful voice. I do not however apprehend, that this is any proof that the customs of the East, with refpect to the manner of doing perfons honour there, are changed, though we read, that when our Lord entered with something of ftate into Jerufalem, they cried, "Ho"fanna to the fon of David: bleffed be he "that cometh in the name of the Lord, “Hofanna in the highest," Matt. xxi. 9; and that when Solomon was brought up

from Gihon, after having received the regal unction, "The people rejoiced with great

joy, fo that the earth rent with the found of "them," 1 Kings i. 40; fince these were not the founds of falutation, but the cries of people at fome distance from Solomon, and from our Lord, difperfedly expreffing their triumph.

So we find in Maillet, that when there is any rain at Cairo, it is fo extraordinary, and at the fame time fo exquifitely grateful, that the children run about the ftreets with cries of joy; and that when the only fon of that magnificent perfon, who was Bafhaw of Egypt in 1696, was paffing along in a grand proceffion, in order to be circumcifed, the way was all ftrewed with flowers, and the air rung with acclamations and cries of joy. This was among a people that would doubtlefs have faluted a prince as he passed along, in the fame manner in which the people of Conftantinople faluted their Sultan, with a low and refpectful voice. This difference is to be attended to, as it ferves to determine that what was faid when our Lord entered Jerufalem, was the expreffion of gratulation and triumph, not a falutation, or speaking to him.

OBSERVATION XVI.

[The nobleness of Eaftern falutations confifts not merely in the attitudes into which

1 Let. I. p. 17.

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2 Let 10. p. 78.

they

they put themselves, but in the expreffions they make use of, which have frequently fomething very devout, very fublime in them.

"God be gracious unto thee, my fon," were the words with which Jofeph received Benjamin, Gen. xliii. 29. This would have been called through all Europe, and in the living languages of this part of the world, the giving a perfon one's benediction, fays Sir J. Chardin in his MS; but it is a fimple falutation in Afia, and is there used instead of thofe offers and af furances of fervice which it is the custom to make ufe of in the Weft, in first addreffing or taking leave of an acquaintance. It cannot easily be believed how eloquent the people of the Eaft of all religions are in wishing good, and the mercies of God to one another, upon all occafions, and even those that scarce know them to whom they Speak; yet at the fame time they are fome of the worst and most double-tongued people in the world. It appears from Scripture this has always been their character. One may fay of them in all ages that which David did," They blefs with "their mouth, but they curfe inwardly."

How noble the expreffions as well the poftures of Eastern falutation! but how unhappy that the tongue and the heart are at fuch variance! This account, however, explains the ground of the Scripture's fo often calling the falutations and farewells of the Eaft by the term blessing.

OBSER

OBSERVATION XVII.

Full of reverence as the Eastern addreffes are, and especially of those to the Great, in fome points they are not fo fcrupulous as we are in the West. An inferior's mentioning himself before he names his Superior is an instance of this kind.

Every body knows in how odious a light Cardinal Wolfey's naming himself before his King appeared in England, in the fixteenth century. It was thought the most confummate arrogance; nevertheless Sir J. Chardin affures us it is cuftomary, among the Perfians, for the speaker to name himself first.

He mentions this in one of his MSS, as illuftrating 1 Sam. xxiv. 12, "The Lord "judge between me and thee." David fpoke after this manner to Saul, and that when he treated that prince with great reverence: "David stooped with his face to the earth, " and bowed himself," fays the eighth verse. Gen. xxiii. 15, compared with verfe 6, is another inftance of it. David's mentioning himself first then, when speaking to Saul, marks out no infolence in him; it was on the contrary perfectly agreeable to the modern ceremonial of Eastern courts, at least of that of Perfia.]