mere notice of its contents, namely, Dr Stukely's account of Abury, a temple of the Druids, in North Wiltshire.

But by far the most ingenious account of the origin and use of Hieroglyphical Symbols is that given by the learned and acute Bishop Warburton, in his celebrated work, entitled, "The Divine Legation of Moses," in which he has considered the subject at large, and has dissipated much of the darkness that previously rested upon it. An abstract of his reasoning may be seen in the Works of the Learned, for September 1741, Article 14, and at the close of the third volume of Dr Macknight's Commentary on the Apostolic Epistles. Dr Warburton observes, that the tropical symbol sometimes assumed the form of a riddle, which in Scripture is called a dark saying, and he produces an example of it from Ezekiel xvii. 2, &c. which the reader will find illustrated in the following work, under the article Eagle.

Considerable use, in the illustration of symbols, has been made by former authors, of the works of the Oneirocritics, or interpreters of dreams, an art of very high antiquity, and of which Scripture carries the practice up to the time of Joseph, who interpreted the dream of Pharaoh. Dreams were considered as speculative or allegorical; the first is that which represents a plain and direct picture of the event predicted; the second an oblique one, or a tropical and symbolical image of it. This latter is that kind only

which needs an interpreter. If a man dreamed of a dragon, the oneirocritics assured him it signified majesty; when of a serpent, a disease; of a viper, money; of cats, adultery; of partridges, impious persons, &c. What foundation these interpreters had for their system it is not easy to say, but it must have been something more than the working of each man's private imagination, for their customers would require a settled analogy for the basis of their decyphering, and they would as naturally fly to some confessed authority to support their science. This authority is conceived to have been the symbolic hieroglyphics; and as the gods were believed to have been the inventors of hieroglyphic learning, so it was natural to suppose, that these gods, who in their opinion sent dreams likewise, had employed the same manner of expression in both revelations.

Amidst the vast number of Scripture passages noticed or referred to in this work, the Author was at a loss how to proceed. Had he simply referred to them by chapter and verse, it is much to be feared, through the haste or indolence of readers, that many would have been overlooked. Had he, on the other hand, quoted them all, it would have greatly swelled the book. He has therefore tried to steer a middle course, and most of those he has quoted are expressed differently from the common version.

The references to Scripture and to profane authors are also generally contrived so as to avoid the too

frequent introduction of Hebrew or Greek characters, which would have rendered the work repulsive to the English reader, as well as have increased the expense of publication.

SYMBOLICAL LANGUAGE

OF

SCRIPTURE.

ABYSS. Abyss literally signifies any great depth, and generally a mass of very deep waters. Symbolically, it may be understood of a hidden and confused multitude of persons. According to the Jews, the abyss was a place under the earth, in the most internal parts of it, and was thought to be a great receptacle of waters, as a reservatory to furnish all the springs or rivers. And this opinion was held by Plato, Homer, Seneca, and others, as well as by the Egyptians.

In Gen. vii. 11, it is called the great deep, by way of eminence; or that vast body of waters which is conceived to exist in the hollow sphere or womb of earth, whence it was brought forth at the universal deluge.

Isaiah li. 10," Art thou not it that dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep ?”—i. e. of that sea whose waters communicated with the great deep. This circumstance, as Parkhurst observes, greatly heightens the miracle.

Isaiah xliv. 27. What in the Seventy is abyss, is

in the Hebrew deep. This refers to the method by which Cyrus took Babylon, viz. by laying the bed of the Euphrates dry, as mentioned by Xenophon and others. The same event is noticed in similar terms by Jerem. 1. 38, and li. 36. A parallel passage, in relation to Egypt, occurs in Isaiah xix. 5, where the exhaustion of the country and its resources by foreign conquerors seems to be pointed out. These conquerors were Nebuchadnezzar and the Persian kings, whose yoke was very grievous.

Luke viii. 31, the term deep should be rendered the abyss, as Campbell justly observes. The sea or deep is expressed by a different word, to Babos. That the sea is not meant here is evident; for to the sea the demons went of themselves, when permitted, at their own request, to enter into the swine.

Rom. x. 7, "Who shall descend into the abyss, to bring up Christ again from the dead?" i. e. as Campbell explains it, faith does not require, for our satisfaction, things impracticable, either to scale the heavens, or to explore the profound recesses of departed spirits. For the word abyss signifies a pit or gulf, if not bottomless, at least of an indeterminable depth; and must mean here more than the grave, since nothing is more practicable for the living than a descent thither. Besides, to call the grave the abyss, is entirely unexampled. Let it be also observed, that it is not said, "to bring Christ up from the grave," but from the dead, for which end, to bring back the soul is, in the first place, necessary. In this instance, the term abyss corresponds to Hades, which generally denotes the intermediate state, place, or receptacle of souls between death and the general resurrection.