glected; but the attempt of the Apostle to repeat the prostration, (for he would have done it a second time,) sufficiently shewed, one would imagine, that the Apostle did not think the Angel rejected it as an idolatrous piece of respect. What a strange interpretation must that be, which supposes St. John, a Jew by descent, a mortal enemy in consequence by birth to all idolatry; a zealous preacher against it, through a very long life; who finished one of his epistles with these very words, "Little children,

keep yourselves from idols," as defirous to have this perpetually fixed on their memories, whatever else they forgot; should, when fuffering in Patmos for the Lord Jesus; and when bleffed with the influences of the prophetic fpirit; attempt to do an idolatrous action, and to repeat that attempt in opposition to the checks of his celestial teacher! Nothing fure can be more inconceivable. At the fame time nothing is eafier than the true interpretation-Smit with veneration for his angelic instructor, and full of gratitude towards him for what he had shewn him, he fell, according to the custom of his nation, at his feet to do him reverence: "See thou do " it not," said 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 justice you ought to afcribe these illuminations. Beauteous was this turning away of the Angel

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gel from him in the Apostle's eyes, and from the additional force of this graceful action, as well as from a lively sense, 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 instruments of conveying them to us, St. John, upon some 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 passage I cited under the last Observation, 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 respectful voice. I do not however apprehend, that this is any proof that the customs of the East, with respect to the manner of doing persons honour there, are changed, though we read, that when our Lord entered with fomething of state into Jerufalem, they cried, "Ho"fanna to the fon of David: blessed be he "that cometh in the name of the Lord, " Hosanna in the highest," Matt. xxi. 9; and that when Solomon was brought up

14 James 1. 17.

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from Gihon, after having received the regal unction, "The people rejoiced with great "joy, so that the earth rent with the found of

them," 1 Kings i. 40; since these were not the founds of falutation, but the cries of people at some distance from Solomon, and from our Lord, dispersedly expreffing their triumph.

So we find in Maillet, that when there is any rain at Cairo, it is so extraordinary, and at the same time so exquifitely grateful, that the children run about the streets with cries of joy; and that when the only fon of that magnificent person, who was Bashaw of Ægypt in 1696, was passing along in a grand proceffion, in order to be circumcifed, the way was all strewed with flowers, and the air rung with acclamations and cries of joy. This was among a people that would doubtless 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 respectful voice. This difference is to be attended to, as it serves to determine that what was faid when our Lord entered Jerufalem, was the expression of gratulation and triumph, not a falutation, or speaking to him.

OBSERVATION XVI.

[The nobleness of Eastern salutations confifts not merely in the attitudes into which

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

" God be gracious unto thee, my fon," were the words with which Joseph 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 person one's benediction, says Sir J. Chardin in his MS; but it is a fimple falutation in Afia, and is there used instead of those offers and affurances of fervice which it is the custom to make use of in the West, in first addressing or taking leave of an acquaintance. It cannot easily be believed how eloquent the people of the East 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 same time they are some of the worst and most double-tongued people in the world. It appears from Scripture this has always been their character. One may say of them in all ages that which David did, "They bless with “ their mouth, but they curse inwardly."

How noble the expressions as well the postures of Eastern salutation! but how unhappy that the tongue and the heart are at such variance! This account, however, explains the ground of the Scripture's so often calling the falutations and farewells of the East by the term bleffing.

OBSER

OBSERVATION XVII.

Full of reverence as the Eastern addresses are, and especially of those to the Great, in some points they are not so scrupulous as we are in the West. An inferior's mentioning himself before be names his fuperior 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 assures us it is customary, 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 spoke 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," says the eighth verse. Gen. xxiii. 15, compared with verse 6, is another instance of it. David's mentioning himself first then, when speaking to Saul, marks out no insolence in him; it was on the contrary perfectly agreeable to the modern ceremonial of Eastern courts, at least of that of Perfia.]