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and to fet up others in various parts of the kingdom upon the fame plan, and under the fame direction.

The fact, however, is that he has been fo employed for fome months past, and very recently he was at Bristol, where he preached or lectured upon the fubject, to crowded audiences, and with confiderable fuccefs.

It should also be made known, that, among other engines made ufe of to carry on this project, a printing office has been established near the fchool, the property of the quaker and his friends, who turn it to a good account for their intereft, though what fort of wares iffue from this manufactory may be easily gueffed.

By an article of intelligence contained in the Monthly Magazine for September laft, I find that a school of this kind has been just established, at Clewer near Windfor, under the aufpices of perfons of high rank, and it is added, that "the fchool was opened and organized by two young men from Mr. Lancaiter's Free School, in St. George's Fields."

This information is enough to excite alarm in the minds of all who have a concern for the interefts of our national church, or indeed for our common Christianity. What must be the consequences of a mode of education of which religious principles form no part, and wherein the pofitive ordinances of Jefus Christ are treated, at least with filent contempt, if not indeed as fuperftitious imaginations?

Can it be fuppofed for a moment, that quakers will have fuch an uncommon liberality, as to bend from their stiffness, and teach that to others which they neither believe nor refpect themselves? It may perhaps be observed, and a miserable fubterfuge it is, that nothing is taught in thefe schools but those points on which all Chriftians are agreed. In plain terms, if this means any thing, it goes to the length of making indifference to religious truth the primary article of education. I am ftrongly inclined to think, if not fully perfuaded, that this is actually the defign of many of the advocates of this scheme, as managed by the quaker and his difciples; and for what purpose is evident enough, even to raise up a generation of men, who, not having been early imbued with religious principles, may be naturally difpofed to cooperate in any measure that fhall have the prefent fubjugation and final deftruction of the national church for its object. I am, Sir, Yours,

Jan. 16, 1898,

VERAX.

IZANIA O

ON THE WORD ZIZANIA OR TARES.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCHMAN'S

IN

SIR,

MAGAZINE.

N the works of Sir Thomas Browne, edition folio 1686, I met with the following remarks on the word Zizania, tranflated in our verfion of the Scriptures Tares, which to my mind were curious and deferving of notice. I have therefore transcribed that learned writer's obfervations for infertion in your Magazine, if you agree with my opinion of

them.

I am, Sir, Yours,

A. Z.

MATT. xiii. 24, 25.

"The kingdom of Heaven is likened unto a man which fowed good feed in his field, but while men flept, his enemy came and fowed Tares (or as the Greek, Zizania) among the wheat,"

NOW, how to render Zizania, and to what fpecies of plants to confine it, there is no flender doubt; for the word is not mentioned in other parts of Scripture, nor in any ancient Greek writer: it is not to be found in Ariftotle, Theophraftus, or Diofcorides. Some Greek and Latin Fathers have made ufe of the fame, as alfo Suidas and Phavorius; but probably they have all derived it from this text.

And therefore, this obfcurity might easily occafion such variety in tranflations and expofitions. For fome retain the word Zizania, as the Vulgate, that of Beza, of Junius; and alfo the Italian and Spanish. The Low Dutch renders it Oncruidt, the German Oncrant or Herba mala, the French Yuroye or Lolium, and the English Tares.

Befides, this being conceived to be a Syriac word, it may ftill add unto the uncertainty of the fenfe. For though this Gospel were firft written in Hebrew or Syriac, yet it is not unquestionable

unquestionable whether the true original be any where extant; and that Syriac copy which we now have is conceived to be of far later time than St. Matthew.

Expofitions and annotations are also various. Hugo Grotius has paffed the word Zizania without a note. Diodati, retaining the word Zizania, conceives that it was fome peculiar herb growing among the corn of thofe countries, and not known in our fields. But Emanuel de Sa interprets it, plantas femini noxias, and fo accordingly fome others.

Buxtorfius, in his Rabbinical Lexicon, gives divers interpretations, fometimes for degenerated corn, fometimes for the black feeds in wheat, but withal concludes, an hac fit eadem vox aut fpecies cum Zizania apud Evangeliftam, quærent alii.

But lexicons and dictionaries by Zizania do almoft generally understand Lolium, which we call Darnel, and commonly confine the fignification to that plant. Notwithstanding, fince Lolium had a known and received name in Greek,

fome may be apt to doubt, why, if that plant were particularly intended, the proper Greek word was not used in the text. For Theophraftus* named Lolium Apa, and hath often mentioned that plant; and in one place faith, that corn doth fometimes loliefcere or degenerate into Darnel. Diofcorides, who travelled over Judæa, gives it the fame name, which is alfo to be found in Galen, Etius and Ægineta; and Pliny hath fometimes latinized the word into Era

66

Befides, Lolium or Darnel fhews itfelf in the winter, growing up with the wheat; and Theophraftus obferved that it was no vernal plant, but came up in the winter, which will not well anfwer the expreffion of the text, And when the blade came up and brought forth fruit," or gave evidence of its fruit, the Zizania appeared. And if the husbandry of the ancients were agreeable unto ours, they would not have been fo earnest to weed away the Darnel; for our husbandmen do not commonly weed it in the field, but feparate the feeds after threshing: and therefore Galen delivereth, that in an unfeasonable year, and great scarcity of corn, when they neglected to feparate the Darnel, the bread proved generally unwholesome, and had evil effects on the head.

Our old and later translation renders Zizania, Tares, which name our English botanists give unto Aracus, Cracca, Vicia fylveftris, calling them Tares, and ftraggling Tares. And our husbandmen by Tares underftand fome forts of wild

Hist. Plant. lib. viii.

fitches

fitches which grow amongft corn and clasp upon it, according to the Latin etymology, vicia à vinciendo. Now, in this uncertainty of the original, tares as well as fome others. may make the sense, and be alfo more agreeable unto the circumftances of the parable. For they come up and ap-. pear what they are, when the blade of the corn is come up, and alfo the ftalk and fruit difcoverable. They have likewife little spreading roots, which may intangle or rot the good. roots; and they have alfo tendrils and clafpers, which lay hold of what grows near them, and fo can hardly be weeded. without endangering the neighbour corn.

However, if by Zizania we understand "Herbas feget noxias," or "vitia fegetum," as fome expofitors have done, and take the word in a more general fenfe, comprehending feveral weeds and vegetables offenfive unto corn, according as the Greek word in the plural number may imply, and as the learned Laurenbergius* hath expreffed, "Runcare, quod apud noftrales Weden dicitur, Zizanias inutiles eft eyellere." If, I fay, it be thus taken, we shall not need be defini tive, or confine unto one particular plant, from a word which may comprehend divers. And this may alfo prove a safer fenfe, in fuch obfcurity of the original.

And, therefore, fince in this parable the fower of the Zizania is the devil, and the Zizania wicked perfons; if any from this larger acceptation will take in thiftles, darnel, cockle, wild ftraggling fitches, bindweed, tribulus, reftharrow, and other "vitia fegetum," he may, both from the natural and fymbolical qualities of these vegetables, have plenty of matter to illuftrate the variety of his mischiefs, and of the wicked of this world.

*De Horti Cultura.

SIR,

To J. W.-ON THE RIGHT OF BURIAL.

I THANK you much for your very fatisfactory answer to a correfpondent in the Orthodox Churchman's Magazine, who had requested information upon the fubject of reading the burial service over the corpfe of a Dei or Diffenter. In

VOL. XIV.

Chm. Mag. Jan, 1868.

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that

that answer, however, you fay that "every perfon, baptized or unbaptized, has a right to a burial place in the church yard of the parish in which he dies." Now, Sir, you would oblige me much by the information on what this right is founded, and how it is to be afferted and exercifed. Can it be enforced, and how, against the will of the minifter? As you allow that the burial fervice of the church is not to be read over the unbaptized, is the interment of persons of that defcription to be attended with any other kind of burial fervice, according to their religious profeffion, be it what it may? If fo, not only all kinds of Diffenters profeffing Chriftianity, but Jews, Turks, and Heathens, would be entitled to perform the funeral rites of their religion in a church yard.

Dec. 10, 1807.

I am, Sir,

Your humble fervant, ANOTHER CORRESPONDENT.

Ecclesiastical Antiquities.

I. OF THE PRIMITIVE FAITH AND WORSHIP.

and

THE great and folemn commiffion given by our Lord to the eleven Apoftles, after his refurrection, contains in it the principles of Chriftian belief, the rules of Chriftian practice, and an order for divine worship. "Go ye teach all nations, baptizing them in the NAME of the FATHER, and of the SON, and of the HOLY GHOST; teaching them to obferve all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and lo I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." (Matt. xxvii. 19.)

Such is the charter of the Chriftian church, expreffed in that perfpicuity of language which cannot poffibly be mistaken or perverted without a wilful defign to force a private sense upon a public declaration. The Apostles were commanded by their Lord, who by his facrifice on the cross, andtriumph over death, was become the mediatorial head over all things, and the reconciler of Heaven and Earth, to gather men out of every nation into his church by the public

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