Lucian says, that when he was at Delphi, the oracle gave no answer, nor was the priestess inspired. This likewise appears from Plutarch's treatise, why the oracles cease to give answers, already cited; whence it is also manifest, that the most learned heathens were very much at a loss how to give a tolerable account of it. Porphyry, in a passage cited from him by Eusebius, says, "the city of Rome was overrun with sickness, Esculapius and the rest of the gods having withdrawn their converse with men; because since Jesus began to be worshipped, no man had received any public help or benefit from the gods." With respect to the origin of oracles, they were probably imitations, first, of the answers given to the holy patriarchs from the divine presence or Shechinah, and secondly, of the responses to the Jewish High Priest from the mercy-seat for all paganism is a parody of the true religion.

ORDINATION, the act of conferring holy orders, or of initiating a person into the ministry of the gospel, by prayer and with or without the laying on of hands. In the church of England, ordination has always been esteemed the principal prerogative of bishops; and bishops still retain the function as a mark of their spiritual sovereignty in their diocese. Without ordination no person can receive any benefice, parsonage, vicarage, &c. A person must be twentythree years of age, or near it, before he can be ordained deacon, or have any share in the ministry; and full twenty-four before he can be ordained priest, and by that means be permitted to administer the holy communion. A bishop, on the ordination of clergymen, is to examine them in the presence of the ministers, who in the ordination of priests, but not of deacons, assist him at the imposition of hands; but this is only done as a mark of assent, not because it is thought necessary. In case any crime, as drunkenness, perjury, forgery, &c., is alleged against any one that is to be ordained, either priest or deacon, the bishop ought to desist from ordaining him. The person to be ordained is to bring a testimonial of his life and doctrine to the bishop, and to give an account of his faith in Latin; and both priests and deacons are obliged to subscribe to the thirtynine articles. In the ancient discipline there was no such thing as a vague and absolute

ordination; but every one was to have a church, whereof he was to be ordained clerk or priest. In the twelfth century the bishops grew more remiss, and ordained without any title or benefice. The council of Trent, however, restored the ancient discipline, and appointed that none should be ordained but those who were provided with a benefice; which practice still obtains in the church of England.

The reformed held the call of the people the only thing essential to the validity of the ministry; and teach, that ordination is only a ceremony, which renders the call more august and authentic. Accordingly the Protestant churches of Scotland, France, Holland, Switzerland, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Denmark, &c. have no episcopal ordination. For Luther, Calvin, Bucer, Melancthon, &c., and all the first reformers and founders of these churches, who ordained ministers among them, were themselves presbyters, and no other. And though in some of these churches there are ministers called superintendents, or bishops, yet these are only primi inter pares, the first among equals; not pretending to any superiority of orders. Having themselves no other orders than what either presbyters gave them, or what was given them as presbyters, they can convey no other to those they ordain. On this ground the Protestant Dissenters plead that their ordination, though not episcopal, is the same with that of all the illustrious Protestant churches abroad; and object, that a priest ordained by a popish bishop should be received into the church of England as a valid minister, rightfully ordained; whilst the orders of another, ordained by the most learned religious presbyter, which any fo reign country can boast, are pronounced not valid, and he is required to submit to be ordained afresh. In opposition to episcopal ordination, they urge that Timothy was or dained by the laying on of the hands of the presbytery, 1 Tim. iv. 14; that Paul and Barnabas were ordained by certain prophets and teachers in the church of Antioch, and not by any bishop presiding in that city, Acts xiii. 1-3; and that it is a well-known fact, that presbyters in the church of Alexandria ordained even their own bishops for more than two hundred years in the earliest ages of Christianity. They farther argue, that bishops and presbyters are in scripture the same, and not denominations of distinct orders or offices in the church, referring to Philip. i. 1; Titus i. 5, 7; Acts xx. 27, ; 1

Peter v. 1, 2. To the same purpose they maintain, that the superiority of bishops to presbyters is not pretended to be of divine, but of human, institution; not grounded on scripture, but only upon the custom or ordinances of this realm, by the first reformers and founders of the church of England; nor by many of its most learned and eminent doctors since. See Stillingfleet's Iresics, in which the learned author affirms and shows

this to be the sentiment of Cranmer, and other chief reformers both in Edward VI. and Queen Elizabeth's reign, of Archbishop Whitgift, Bishop Bridges, Lee, Hooker, Sut cliff, Hales, Chillingworth, &c. Moreover, the book entitled, the Institution of a Christian Man," subscribed by the clergy in convocation, and confirmed by parliament, owns bishops and presbyters by scripture to be the same. Besides, the Protestant Dissenters allege, that if episcopal ordination be really necessary to constitute a valid minister, it does not seem to be enjoined by the constitution of the church of England; because the power of ordination which the bishops exercise in this kingdom, is derived entirely and only from the civil magistrate; and he authoritatively prescribes how, and to whom ordination is to be given: that if an ordination should be conducted in other manner and form than that prescribed by him, such ordination would be illegal, and of no authority in the church. Accordingly the bishop at the ordination of the candidate asks, "Are you called according to the will of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the due order of this realm?" The constitution and law of England seem to know nothing of uninterrupted lineal descent, but considers the king vested, by act of parliament, or the suffrage of the people, with a fulness of all power ecclesiastical in these realms, as empowering and authorizing bishops to ordain: and this power of ordination was once delegated to Cromwell, a layman, as vicegerent to the king. They farther think it strange, that the validity of orders and ministrations should be derived, as some have contended, from a succession of popish bishops; bishops of a church, which, by the definition of the nineteenth article of the church, can be no part of the true visible church of Christ, and bishops, likewise, who consider the Protestant clergy, although ordained by Protestant bishops, as mere common unconsecrated laymen.

a

On reviewing the whole of this controversy, says Dr. Watts, that since there are some texts in the New Testament, wherein single persons, either apostles, as Paul and Barnabas, ordained ministers in the churches, or evangelists, as Timothy and Titus; and since other missions or ordinations are intimated to be performed by several persons, namely, prophets, teachers, elders, or presbytery, Acts xiii. 1; 1 Timothy iv. 14; since there is sometimes mention made of the imposition of hands in the mission of a minister, and sometimes no mention is made of it; and since it is evident that in some cases popular ordinations are and must be valid without any bishop or elder, I think none of these differences should be made a matter of violent contest among Christians; nor ought any words to be pronounced against each other by those of the episcopal, presbyterian, or independent way. Surely all may agree thus far, that various forms or

modes, seeming to be used in the mission or ordination of ministers in primitive times, may give a reasonable occasion or colour for sincere and honest searchers after truth to follow different opinions on this head, and do therefore demand our candid and charitable sentiments concerning those who differ from us. Among the Wesleyan Methodists, the ordination of their ministers is in the annual conference, with a President at its head, and is by prayer without imposition of hands. The latter they hold to be a circumstance of ordination, not an essential. They sometimes therefore use it, and at others omit it. The missionaries sent out by that body, if not previously ordained by the Conference, are set apart by a few senior ministers; and ordinarily in this case, the service of the church of England, with some alterations, is used, with imposition of the hands of the ministers present.

OSSIFRAGE, D, Lev. xi. 13; Deut. xiv. 12. Interpreters are not agreed on this bird; some read "vulture," others "the black eagle," others "the falcon." The name peres, by which it is called in Hebrew, denotes "to crush, to break ;" and this name agrees with our version, which implies "the bone-breaker," which name is given to a kind of eagle, from the circumstance of its habit of breaking the bones of its prey, after it has eaten the flesh: some say also, that he even swallows the bones thus broken. Onkelos uses a word which signifies "naked," and leads us to the vulture: indeed, if we were to take the classes of birds in any thing like a natural order in the passages here referred to, the vulture should follow the eagle as an unclean bird. The Septuagint interpreter also renders vulture; and so do Munster, Schindler, and the Zurick versions.

66

OSTRICH, ; in Arabic neamah; in Greek spotokáμnλos, the camel-bird; and still in the east, says Niebuhr, it is called thar edsjammel, "the camel-bird,” Lev. xi. 16; Deut. xiv. 15; Job xxx. 29; Isaiah xiii. 21; xxxiv. 13; xliii. 20; Jer. 1. 39; Lam. iv. 3; Micah i. 8; ♪♪7, Job xxxix. 13. The first name in the places above quoted is, by our own translators, generally rendered owls." "Now, it should be recollected," says the author of "Scripture Illustrated," "that the owl is not a desert bird, but rather resides in places not far from habitations, and that it is not the companion of serpents; whereas, in several of these passages, the joneh is associated with deserts, dry, extensive, thirsty deserts, and with serpents, which are their natural inhabitants. Our ignorance of the natural history of the countries which the ostrich inhabits has undoubtedly perverted the import of the above passages; but let any one peruse them afresh, and exchange the owl for the ostrich, and he will immediately discover a vigour of description, and an imagery much beyond what he had formerly perceived." The Hebrew phrase

, means "the daughter of vocife

ration," and is understood to be the female ostrich, probably so called from the noise which this bird makes. It is affirmed by travellers of good credit, that ostriches make a fearful, screeching, lamentable noise.

Ostriches are inhabitants of the deserts of Arabia, where they live chiefly upon vegetables; lead a social and inoffensive life, the male assorting with the female with connubial fidelity. Their eggs are very large, some of them measuring above five inches in diameter, and weighing twelve or fifteen pounds. These birds are very prolific, laying forty or fifty eggs at a clutch. They will devour leather, grass, hair, stones, metals, or any thing that is given to them; but those substances which the coats of the stomach cannot act upon pass whole. It is so unclean an animal as to eat its own ordure as soon as it voids it. This is a sufficient reason, were others wanting, why such a fowl should be reputed unclean, and its use as an article of diet prohibited. "The ostrich," says M. Buffon, was known in the remotest ages, and mentioned in the most ancient books. How indeed could an animal, so remarkably large, and so wonderfully prolific, and peculiarly suited to the climate as is the ostrich, remain unknown in Africa, and part of Asia, countries peopled from the earliest ages, full of deserts indeed, but where there is not a spot which has not been traversed by the foot of man? The family of the ostrich, therefore, is of great antiquity. Nor in the course of ages has it varied or degenerated from its native purity. It has always remained on its paternal estate; and its lustre has been transmitted unsullied by foreign intercourse. In short, it is among the birds what the elephant is among the quadrupeds, a distinct race, widely separated from all the others by characters as striking as they are invariable." "On the least noise," says Dr. Shaw," or trivial occasion, she forsakes her eggs, or her young ones; to which perhaps she never returns; or if she does, it be may too late either to restore life to the one, or

deserting their own, and receiving others in return." Natural affection and sagacious instinct are the grand instruments by which providence continues the race of other animals: but no limits can be set to the wisdom and power of God. He preserveth the breed of the ostrich without those means, and even in a penury of all the necessaries of life. Notwithstanding the stupidity of this animal, its Creator hath amply provided for its safety, by endowing it with extraordinary swiftness, and a surprising apparatus for escaping from its enemy. They, when they raise themselves up for flight, "laugh at the horse and his rider." They afford him an opportunity only of admiring at a distance the extraordinary agility and the stateliness likewise of their motions, the richness of their plumage, and the great propriety there was in ascribing to them an expanded quivering wing. Nothing certainly can be more entertaining than such a sight, the wings, by their rapid but unwearied vibrations, equally serving them for sails and oars; while their feet, no less assisting in conveying them out of sight, seem to be insensible of fatigue.

OWL. There are several varieties of this

species, all too well known to need a particular description. They are nocturnal birds of prey, and have their eyes better adapted for discerning objects in the evening or twilight than in the glare of day. 1. D1, Lev. xi. 17, Deut. xiv. 16, Psalm cii. 6, is in our version rendered "the little owl." Aquila, Theodotion, Jerom, Kimchi, and most of the rendering. Michaelis, at some length, supolder interpreters, are quoted to justify this ports the opinion that it is the horned owl Bochart, though with some hesitation, sus pected it to be the onocrotalus, a kind of pelican, because the Hebrew name signifes cup, and the pelican is remarkable for a pouch or bag under the lower jaw; but there be the NP of the next verse. Dr. Geddes are good reasons for supposing that bird to thinks this bird the cormorant; and as it begins the list of water-fowl, and is mertioned always in the same contexts with

is also recorded, Lam. iv. 3, the daughter of my people is become cruel, like ostriches in the wilderness;' that is, by apparently

may be adopted. 2. 1), Lev. xi. 17; Deut. xiv. 16; Isaiah xxxiv. 11. In the two first places our translators render this "the great owl," which is strangely placed after the little owl, and among water-birds. “Our translators," says the author of "Scripture Illustrated," "seem to have thought the ol a convenient bird, as we have three owls in two verses.' 99 Some critics think it means a species of night-bird, because the word may be derived from w, which signifies the ti light, the time when owls fly about. But this interpretation, says Parkhurst, se very forced; and since it is mentioned among water-fowls, and the LXX. have, in the first and last of those texts, rendered it by tes, the ibis, we are disposed to adopt it here, and think the evidence strength

ened by this, that in a Coptic version of Lev. xi. 17, it is called ip or hip, which, with a Greek termination, would very easily make 6. 3. 11DP, which occurs only in Isaiah xxxiv. 15, is in our version rendered “the great owl." 4. ♫›bb, Isaiah xxxiv. 14, in our version" the screech-owl." The root signifies night; and as undoubtedly a bird frequenting dark places and ruins is referred to, we must admit some kind of owl.

A place of lonely desolation, where

The screeching tribe and pelicans abide,
And the dun ravens croak mid ruins drear,

And moaning owls from man the farthest hide.

OX, p2, in Arabic bakerre and bykar, the male of horned cattle of the beeve kind, at full age, when fit for the plough. Younger ones are called bullocks. Michaëlis, in his elaborate work on the laws of Moses, has proved that castration was never practised. The rural economy of the Israelites led them to value the ox as by far the most important of domestic animals, from the consideration of his great use in all the operations of farming. In the patriarchal ages, the ox constituted no inconsiderable portion of their wealth. Thus Abraham is said to be very rich in cattle, Gen. xxiv. 35. Men of every age and country have been much indebted to the labours of this animal. So early as in the days of Job, who was probably contemporary with Isaac, "the oxen were ploughing, and the asses were feeding beside them," when the Sabeans fell upon them, and took them away. In times long posterior, when Elijah was commissioned to

PADAN-ARAM, called also Sedan-Aram in Hosea; both names denoting Aram, or Syria the fruitful, or cultivated, and apply to the northern part of Mesopotamia, in which Haran or Charran was situated. See MESO

POTAMIA.

PAGANS, heathens, and particularly those who worship idols. The term came into use after the establishment of Christianity, the cities and great towns affording the first converts. The heathens were called pagans, from pagus, "a village," because they were then found chiefly in remote country places; but we use the term commonly for all who do not receive the Jewish, Christian, or Mahometan religions.

PAINTING THE FACE, 2 Kings ix. 30. See EYES.

PALESTINE, taken in a limited sense, denotes the country of the Philistines or Palestines, including that part of the land of promise which extended along the Mediterranean sea, from Gaza south to Lydda north. The LXX. were of opinion that the word Philistiim, which they generally translate Allophyli, signified "strangers," or men of another tribe. Palestine, taken in a more general sense, signifies the whole country of

anoint Elisha, the son of Shaphat, prophet in his stead, he found him ploughing with twelve yoke of oxen, 1 Kings xix. 19. For many ages the hopes of oriental husbandmen depended entirely on their labours. This was so much the case in the time of Solomon, that he observes, in one of his proverbs, "Where no oxen are, the crib is clean," or rather empty; but much increase is by the strength of the ox," Prov. xiv. 4. The ass, in the course of ages, was compelled to bend his stubborn neck to the yoke, and share the labours of the ox; but still the preparation of the ground in the time of spring depended chiefly on the more powerful exertions of the latter. When this animal was employed in bringing home the produce of the harvest, he was regaled with a mixture of chaff, chopped straw, and various kinds of grain, moistened with acidulated water. But among the Jews, the ox was best fed when employed in treading out the corn; for the divine law, in many of whose precepts the benevolence of the Deity conspicuously shines, forbad to muzzle him, and, by consequence, to prevent him from eating what he would of the grain he was employed to separate from the husks. The ox was also compelled to the labour of dragging the cart or waggon. The number of oxen commonly yoked to one cart appears to have been two, Num. vii. 3, 7, 8; 1 Sam. vi. 7; 2 Sam. vi. 3, 6.

The wild-ox, 187, Deut. xiv. 5, is supposed to be the oryx of the Greeks, which is a species of large stag.

older leaves decay, the stalk advances in height. The leaves, when the tree has grown to a size for bearing fruit, are six or eight feet long, are very broad when spread out, and are used for covering the tops of houses, &c. The fruit, which is called date, grows below the leaves in clusters, and is of a sweet and agreeable taste. The learned Kæmpfer, as a botanist, an antiquary, and a traveller, has exhausted the whole subject of palm-trees. "The diligent natives," says Mr. Gibbon," celebrated, either in verse or prose, the three hundred and sixty uses to which the trunk, the branches, the leaves, the juice, and the fruit, were skilfully applied." "The extensive importance of the date-tree," says Dr. E. D. Clarke, "is one of the most curious subjects to which a traveller can direct his attention. A considerable part of the inhabitants of Egypt, of Arabia, and Persia, subsist almost entirely upon its fruit. They boast also of its medicinal virtues. Their camels feed upon the date-stone. From the leaves they make couches, baskets, bags, mats, and brushes; from the branches, cages for their poultry, and fences for their gardens; from the fibres of the boughs, thread, ropes, and rigging; from the sap is prepared a spirituous liquor; and the body of the tree furnishes fuel. It is even said that from one variety of the palm-tree, the phoenix farinifera, meal has been extracted, which is found among the fibres of the trunk, and has been used for food."

In the temple of Solomon were pilasters made in the form of palm-trees, 1 Kings vi. 29. It was under a tree of this kind that Deborah dwelt between Ramah and Bethel, Judges iv. 5. To the fair, flourishing, and fruitful condition of this tree, the psalmist very aptly compares the votary of virtue, Psalm xcii. 12, 13, 14 :—

The righteous shall flourish like a palm-tree.
Those that are planted in the house of Jehovah,
In the courts of our God, shall flourish;
In old age they shall still put forth buds,
They shall be full of sap and vigorous.

The palm-tree is crowned at its top with a large tuft of spiring leaves, about four feet long, which never fall off, but always continue in the same flourishing verdure. The tree, as Dr. Shaw was informed, is in its greatest vigour about thirty years after it is planted, and continues in full vigour seventy years longer; bearing all this while, every year, about three or four hundred pounds' weight of dates. The trunk of the tree is remarkably straight and lofty. Jeremiah, speaking of the idols that were carried in procession, says they were upright as the palm-tree, Jer. x. 5. And for erect stature and slenderness of form, the spouse, in Canticles vii. 7, is compared to this tree :

How framed, O my love, for delights!
Lo, thy stature is like a palm-tree,
And thy bosom like clusters of dates.

On this passage Mr. Good observes, that "the very word tamar, here used for the

palm-tree, and whose radical meaning is straight' or upright,' (whence it was afterwards applied to pillars or columns, as well as to the palm,) was also a general name among the ladies of Palestine, and unquestionably adopted in honour of the stature they had already acquired, or gave a fair promise of attaining."

A branch of palm was a signal of victory, and was carried before conquerors in the triumphs. To this, allusion is made, Rev. vii. 9: and for this purpose were they borne before Christ in his way to Jerusalem, John xii. 13. From the inspissated sap of the tree, a kind of honey, or dispse, as it is called, is produced, little inferior to that of bees. The same juice, after fermentation, makes a sort of wine much used in the east. It is once mentioned as wine, Numbers xxviii. 7; Exodus xxix. 40; and by it is intended the strong drink, Isai. v. 11; xxiv. 9. Theodo ret and Chrysostom, on these places, both Syrians, and unexceptionable witnesses in what belongs to their own country, confirm this declaration. "This liquor," says Dr. Shaw, "which has a more luscious sweetness than honey, is of the consistence of a thin syrup, but quickly grows tart and ropy, acquiring an intoxicating quality, and giving by distillation an agreeable spirit, or aráky, according to the general name of these people for all hot liquors, extracted by the alembic." Its Hebrew name is 1, the σIKEрa of the Greeks; and from its sweetness, probably, the saccharum of the Romans. Jerom informs us that in Hebrew "any inebriating liquor is called sicera, whether made of grain, the juice of apples, honey, dates, or any other fruit."

This tree was formerly of great value and esteem among the Israelites, and so very much cultivated in Judea, that, in aftertimes, it became the emblem of that country, as may be seen in a medal of the empe ror Vespasian upon the conquest of Judea It represents a captive woman sitting under a palm-tree, with this inscription, “Judea of his son Titus, struck upon the like octacapta;" ;" and upon a Greek coin, likewise, sion, we see a shield suspended upon a palmtree, with a Victory writing upon it. Pliny for palms." also calls Judea palmis inclyta, "renowned

Jericho, in particular, was called "the city of palms," Deut. xxxiv. 3; 2 Chron. xxviii. 15; because, as Josephus, Strabo, and Pliny, have remarked, it antiently abounded in palm-trees. And so Dr. Shaw remarks, that, though these trees are not now either plentiful or fruitful in other parts of the Holy Land, yet there are seve conveniency they require of being often ral of them at Jericho, where there is the watered; where, likewise, the climate is warm, and the soil sandy, such as they thrive and delight in. Tamar, a city built in the desert by Solomon, 1 Kings ix. 18. Ezek. xlvii. 19, xlviii. 28, was probably so named from the palm-trees growing about