MARRIAGE......MARSHES......MEASURE. 303

raise it, after all its sufferings for the sake of truth and righteousness.

MARSHES. There is not much said of these in the Scriptures, but they appear to be considered as the emblems of barrenness. They are in their own nature unfertile and insalubrious, resembling the Dead Sea, or Sea of Sodom, that dismal example of divine justice; and in that sense may be viewed as representing those who, notwithstanding the motions of God's Spirit, and the means used for their improvement, are utterly unproductive of good.

In Ezek. xlvii. 11, it is said, "As for the marshes and pits, they shall not be healed;" i. e. they shall remain filled with salt water, &c. The allegorical sense is, that some shall reject the Gospel, and some shall receive it without obeying it.

Italy and Spain, in Europe, and many other countries throughout the world, may be viewed as in this marshy state, a state of obduracy, error, and spiritual death. See Vitringa, de Paludibus.

MEASURE. To measure and to divide are the same; and both signify to go about to take possession, after the division. Hence a lot, or division, or inheritance, are all one; because the Israelites got possession of the promised land by division, measure, and lot.

And to divide the spoil, is to get a great booty or victory, because division of the spoils is a consequence of the other. See Numb. xxiv. 17; xxxiii. 54; Josh. i. 16; xiii. 6; Isa. ix. 3; liii. 12.

To mete out is the same. Thus Ps. lx. 5, "I will divide Sichem, and mete out the valley of Succoth,"

signifies an entire possession after a victory, which God had promised to David.

So in Isa. xviii. 2, a nation that is meted out and trodden down, is a nation overcome by its enemies, and quite subdued; so that its possessions are divided and possessed by the conquerors.

So when, in Josh. xxiv. 3, God says, "I have divided unto you by lot those nations that remain,”what is this but to say, that God had put them in possession of their lands? So in Zech. ii. 2, to measure Jerusalem, is again to take possession of it, to rebuild it; or at least to repair that, and rebuild the temple. See also Amos vii. 17.

The same notion is also in the heathen authors. Thus in Horace, immetata jugera, lands unmeasured, 1. 3, od. 24, v. 12, signify, not possessed by any propriety to them, but common; whence the fruits of such lands are called by the poet, liberæ, free to any one to take. See also Virgil, Geor. l. 1, v. 126, 127. MILK AND HONEY, the emblems of fertility. Bochart, Hieroz. p. 2, 1. 4, c. 12, observes, that this phrase occurs about twenty times in the Scriptures, and that it is an image frequently used in the classics, as in Euripides, Bacch. 142, thus translated by Wodhull:

"Rills of milk, and rills of wine,

Moisten the enchanted land,

For him the bee's nectareous treasure stream,
And Syrian frankincense perfumes his shrine."

Josephus represents Galilee as wholly under culture, and everywhere fruitful; as throughout abounding in pastures, planted with all kinds of trees, and inciting, by the good quality of the land, those who

are least disposed to the labour of tillage. See also Shaw's Travels, and Maundrell's.

Milk sometimes denotes the unadulterated word of God, as in 1 Peter ii. 2, compared with Isa. lv. 1.

It also signifies the elementary parts, or rudiments of the Christian doctrine, 1 Cor. iii. 2; Heb. v. 12, 13.

MOON. The moon has generally been considered by divines to be a symbol of the church of God, but on what grounds, it is difficult to discover. It would seem as if the notion had been taken up principally on the supposition that Solomon's Song has a secondary or mystical sense, representing the union of Christ with the church, though neither the name of God nor of Christ is once mentioned in it, nor is it ever quoted, or even alluded to, in the New Testament. In Cant. vi. 10, the bride is said to be "fair as the moon;" but that the church is that bride, is nowhere affirmed. Were it otherwise, the sun also might be supposed to be an emblem of the church, for the same bride is, in the same verse, said to be "clear as the sun." Even were it so, the passage amounts to no more than a simple comparison, "fair as the moon;" in the same manner as Asahel " was light of foot as a roe," 2 Sam. ii. 18. Some divines, however, determined to find the church everywhere, fix on this passage among others, and inform us, that the church is so called, because of her brightness, which she derives from Christ, "the Sun of Righteousness," as the moon does her light from the natural sun; and to intimate, that the church, like the moon, may have her eclipses, and be in darkness for a time. But if the woman mentioned in Rev. xii. 1,

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be intended to represent the church, which is the opinion of most interpreters, then she is described as having the moon under her feet, which, in other words, would be treading upon herself, a picture not very natural.

The Fathers first led the way to the interpretation of the moon as a symbol of the church, as has been proved from their writings by several authors.

The moon has also been considered to be the emblem of the human judgment or intellect, in Eccles. xii. 2, but erroneously; for Solomon is there merely describing the general condition of old age, under the figure of a climate where the sun seldom appears, where the sky is overspread with clouds, and heavy rains are frequent.

As a proof how easily men of fertile imaginations can find a resemblance anywhere, I may be allowed to quote the following from a Danish author. "The moon," says he, "is the symbol of the church; for,

"1. The moon is raised above the earth, and the church hath her citizenship in heaven, Phil. iii. 20.

“2. The moon is a dark body in itself, and borrows its light from the sun; in like manner, the church has no light but what she receives from the Saviour.

"3. The nearer the moon is to the sun, the less brilliant she appears; so the more the rays of the divine light are thrown upon the church, the more her misery and her poverty are discovered.

"4. The moon is continually revolving, and is called by the poets 'the wandering moon,' luna vaga; so the church militant is a pilgrim and stranger, and has no abiding place here.

"5. The moon has her different phases or aspects, waxing and waning in turn; so the church increases in times of peace, and decreases in seasons of persecution, in numbers and stability, while her purity and soundness are reversely affected."

And so forth; for the grounds of comparison are multiplied.

If it be asked, of what, then, is the moon symbolical? the answer is, the sun, moon, and stars, denote different degrees of rank, power, and authority, in a family or state. Thus, in Joseph's dream, the sun represented Jacob the head, the moon his wife, as the next in order, and the stars his sons. When spoken of a kingdom, the sun is the symbol of the king himself, and the moon of the next to him in power, whether it be the queen, the prince-royal, or the prime minister. If kings are sometimes called stars, like the king of Babylon (Isaiah xiv. 17), it is when they are not compared with their own nobles or princes, but with other kings.

In Rev. viii. 12, it is said, "the third part of the moon was smitten."

In the figurative language, the darkening of any of the heavenly bodies denotes a defect in government, a downfall of power, a revolt, or political extinction. And if the Pagan Roman empire be here meant, then it is a third portion of the primary powers denoted by the sun, and of the secondary powers signified by the moon, that is to be extinguished. See Jer. xiii. 16; Isa. xiii. 10, 11; Ezek. xxxii. 7, 8. This is supposed to have been fulfilled between the years 536 and 556, when Belisarius and the Goths alternately