confirmed by the testimony of several respectable moderns. Adders swell
at the sound of a flute, raising themselves up on the one half of their
body, turning themselves round, beating proper time, and following the
instrument. Their head, naturally round and long like an eel, becomes
broad and flat like a fan. The tame serpents, many of which the
orientals keep in their houses, are known to leave their holes in hot
weather, at the sound of a musical instrument, and run upon the
performer. Dr. Shaw had an opportunity of seeing a number of serpents
keep exact time with the Dervishes in their circulatory dances, running
over their heads and arms, turning when they turned, and stopping when
they stopped. The rattlesnake acknowledges the power of music as much as
any of his family; of which the following instance is a decisive proof:
When Chateaubriand was in Canada, a snake of that species entered their
encampment; a young Canadian, one of the party, who could play on the
flute, to divert his associates, advanced against the serpent with his
new species of weapon: on the approach of his enemy, the haughty reptile
curled himself into a spiral line, flattened his head, inflated his
cheeks, contracted his lips, displayed his envenomed fangs, and his
bloody throat, his double tongue glowed like two flames of fire; his
eyes were burning coals; his body, swollen with rage, rose and fell like
the bellows of a forge; his dilated skin assumed a dull and scaly
appearance; and his tail, which sounded the denunciation of death,
vibrated with so great rapidity as to resemble a light vapour. The
Canadian now began to play upon his flute, the serpent started with
surprise, and drew back his head. In proportion as he was struck with
the magic effect, his eyes lost their fierceness, the oscillations of
his tail became slower, and the sound which it emitted became weaker,
and gradually died away. Less perpendicular upon their spiral line, the
rings of the fascinated serpent were by degrees expanded, and sunk one
after another upon the ground, in concentric circles. The shades of
azure, green, white, and gold, recovered their brilliancy on his
quivering skin, and slightly turning his head, he remained motionless,
in the attitude of attention and pleasure. At this moment, the Canadian
advanced a few steps, producing with his flute sweet and simple notes.
The reptile, inclining his variegated neck, opened a passage with his
head through the high grass, and began to creep after the musician,
stopping when he stopped, and beginning to follow him again, as soon as
he moved forward. In this manner he was led out of their camp, attended
by a great number of spectators, both savages and Europeans, who could
scarcely believe their eyes, when they beheld this wonderful effect of
harmony. The assembly unanimously decreed, that the serpent which had so
highly entertained them, should be permitted to escape. Many of them are
carried in baskets through Hindostan, and procure a maintenance for a
set of people who play a few simple notes on the flute, with which the
snakes seem much delighted, and keep time by a graceful motion of the
head, erecting about half their length from the ground, and following
the music with gentle curves, like the undulating lines of a swan’s
neck.
But on some serpents, these charms seem to have no power; and it appears
from Scripture, that the adder sometimes takes precautions to prevent
the fascination which he sees preparing for him: “for the deaf adder
shutteth her ear, and will not hear the voice of the most skilful
charmer.” The threatening of the Prophet Jeremiah proceeds upon the same
fact: “I will send serpents” (cockatrices) “among you, which will not be
charmed, and they shall bite you.” In all these quotations, the sacred
writers, while they take it for granted that many serpents are disarmed
by charming, plainly admit that the powers of the charmer are in vain
exerted upon others.
It is the opinion of some interpreters, that the word שחל, which in some
parts of Scripture denotes a lion, in others means an adder, or some
other kind of serpent. Thus, in the ninety-first Psalm, they render it
the basilisk: “Thou shalt tread upon the adder and the basilisk, the
young lion and the dragon thou shalt trample under foot.” Indeed, all
the ancient expositors agree, that some species of serpent is meant,
although they cannot determine what particular serpent the sacred writer
had in view. The learned Bochart thinks it extremely probable that the
holy Psalmist in this verse treats of serpents only; and, by
consequence, that both the terms שחל and כפיר mean some kind of snakes,
as well as פתן and תנין; because the coherence of the verse is by this
view better preserved, than by mingling lions and serpents together, as
our translators and other interpreters have commonly done; nor is it
easy to imagine what can be meant by treading upon the lion, and
trampling the young lion under foot; for it is not possible in walking
to tread upon the lion, as upon the adder, the basilisk, and other
serpents.
To ADJURE, to bind by oath, as under the penalty of a fearful curse,
Joshua vi, 26; Mark v, 7. 2. To charge solemnly, as by the authority,
and under pain, of the displeasure of God, Matt. xxvi, 63; Acts xix, 13.
ADONAI, one of the names of God. This word in the plural number
signifies _my Lords_. The Jews, who either out of respect or
superstition, do not pronounce the name of Jehovah, read Adonai in the
room of it, as often as they meet with Jehovah in the Hebrew text. But
the ancient Jews were not so scrupulous. Neither is there any law which
forbids them to pronounce any name of God.
ADONIS. The text of the Vulgate in Ezek. viii, 14, says, that the
Prophet saw women sitting in the temple, and weeping for Adonis; but
according to the reading of the Hebrew text, they are said to weep for
Thamuz, or Tammuz, the _hidden one_. Among the Egyptians Adonis was
adored under the name of Osiris, the husband of Isis. But he was
sometimes called by the name of Ammuz, or Tammuz, _the concealed_,
probably to denote his death or burial. The Hebrews, in derision,
sometimes call him the _dead_, Psalm cvi, 28; Lev. xix, 28; because they
wept for him, and represented him as dead in his coffin; and at other
times they denominate him the image of jealousy, Ezek. viii, 3, 5,
because he was the object of the jealousy of Mars. The Syrians,
Phœnicians, and Cyprians, called him Adonis; and Calmet is of opinion
that the Ammonites and Moabites designated him by the name of Baal-peor.
The manner in which they celebrated the festival of this false deity was
as follows: They represented him as lying dead in his coffin, wept for
him, bemoaned themselves, and sought for him with great eagerness and
inquietude. After this, they pretended that they had found him again,
and that he was still living. At this good news they exhibited marks of
the most extravagant joy, and were guilty of a thousand lewd practices,
to convince Venus how much they congratulated her on the return and
revival of her favourite, as they had before condoled with her on his
death. The Hebrew women, of whom the Prophet Ezekiel speaks, celebrated
the feasts of Tammuz, or Adonis, in Jerusalem; and God showed the
Prophet these women weeping for this infamous god, even in his temple.
Fabulous history gives the following account of Adonis: He was a
beautiful young shepherd, the son of Cyniras, king of Cyprus, by his own
daughter Myrrha. The goddess Venus fell in love with this youth, and
frequently met him on mount Libanus. Mars, who envied this rival,
transformed himself into a wild boar, and, as Adonis was hunting, struck
him in the groin and killed him. Venus lamented the death of Adonis in
an inconsolable manner. The eastern people, in imitation of her
mourning, generally established some solemn days for the bewailing of
Adonis. After his death, Venus went to the shades, and obtained from
Proserpine, that Adonis might be with her six months in the year, and
continue the other six in the infernal regions. Upon this were founded
those public rejoicings, which succeeded the lamentations of his death.
Some say that Adonis was a native of Syria; some, of Cyprus; and others,
of Egypt.
ADOPTION. An act by which one takes another into his family, owns him
for his son, and appoints him his heir. The Greeks and Romans had many
regulations concerning adoption. It does not appear that adoption,
properly so called, was formerly in use among the Jews. Moses makes no
mention of it in his laws; and the case of Jacob’s two grandsons, Gen.
xlviii, 14, seems rather a substitution.
2. Adoption in a theological sense is that act of God’s free grace by
which, upon our being justified by faith in Christ, we are received into
the family of God, and entitled to the inheritance of heaven. This
appears not so much a distinct act of God, as involved in, and
necessarily flowing from, our justification; so that, at least the one
always implies the other. Nor is there any good ground to suppose that
in the New Testament the term adoption is used with any reference to the
civil practice of adoption by the Greeks, Romans, or other Heathens, and
therefore it is not judicious to illustrate the texts in which the word
occurs by their formalities. The Apostles in using the term appear to
have had before them the simple view, that our sins had deprived us of
our sonship, the favour of God, and the right to the inheritance of
eternal life; but that, upon our return to God, and reconciliation with
him, our forfeited privileges were not only restored, but greatly
heightened through the paternal kindness of God. They could scarcely be
forgetful of the affecting parable of the prodigal son; and it is under
the same view that St. Paul quotes from the Old Testament, “Wherefore
come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch
not the unclean thing, and I will receive you, and I will be a Father
unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord
Almighty.”
Adoption, then, is that act by which we who were alienated, and enemies,
and disinherited, are made the sons of God, and heirs of his eternal
glory. “If children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with
Christ;” where it is to be remarked, that it is not in our own right,
nor in the right of any work done in us, or which we ourselves do,
though it should be an evangelical work, that we become heirs; but
jointly with Christ, and in his right.
3. To this state belong, freedom from a servile spirit, for we are not
servants but sons; the special love and care of God our heavenly Father;
a filial confidence in him; free access to him at all times and in all
circumstances; a title to the heavenly inheritance; and the Spirit of
adoption, or the witness of the Holy Spirit to our adoption, which is
the foundation of all the comfort we can derive from those privileges,
as it is the only means by which we can know that they are ours.
4. The last mentioned great privilege of adoption merits special
attention. It consists in the inward witness or testimony of the Holy
Spirit to the sonship of believers, from which flows a comfortable
persuasion or conviction of our present acceptance with God, and the
hope of our future and eternal glory. This is taught in several passages
of Scripture:--
Rom. viii, 15, 16, “For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again
to fear, but the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The
Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children
of God.” In this passage it is to be remarked, 1. That the Holy Spirit
takes away “fear,” a servile dread of God as offended. 2. That the
“Spirit of God” here mentioned, is not the personified spirit or genius
of the Gospel, as some would have it, but “the Spirit itself,” or
himself, and hence he is called in the Galatians, “the Spirit of his
Son,” which cannot mean the genius of the Gospel. 3. That he inspires a
filial confidence in God, as our Father, which is opposed to “the fear”
produced by the “spirit of bondage.” 4. That he excites this filial
confidence, and enables us to call God our Father, by witnessing,
bearing testimony with our spirit, “that we are the children of God.”
Gal. iv, 4–6, “But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth
his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were
under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons; and because
ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts,
crying, Abba, Father.” Here also are to be noted, 1. The means of our
redemption from under (the curse of) the law,--the incarnation and
sufferings of Christ. 2. That the adoption of sons follows upon our
actual redemption from that curse, or, in other words, upon our pardon.
3. That upon our being pardoned, the “Spirit of the Son” is “sent forth
into our hearts,” producing the same effect as that mentioned in the
Epistle to the Romans, viz. filial confidence in God,--“crying, Abba,
Father.” To these texts are to be added all those passages, so numerous
in the New Testament, which express the confidence and the joy of
Christians; their friendship with God; their confident access to him as
their God; their entire union and delightful intercourse with him in
spirit.
This has been generally termed the doctrine of assurance, and, perhaps,
the expressions of St. Paul, “the full assurance of faith,” and “the
full assurance of hope,” may warrant the use of the word. But as there
is a current and generally understood sense of this term, implying that
the assurance of our present acceptance and sonship implies an assurance
of our final perseverance, and of an indefeasible title to heaven; the
phrase, a comfortable persuasion, or conviction of our justification and
adoption, arising out of the Spirit’s inward and direct testimony, is to
be preferred.
There is, also, another reason for the sparing and cautious use of the
term assurance, which is, that it seems to imply, though not
necessarily, the absence of all doubt, and shuts out all those lower
degrees of persuasion which may exist in the experience of Christians.
For, our faith may not at first, or at all times, be equally strong, and
the testimony of the Spirit may have its degrees of clearness.
Nevertheless, the fulness of this attainment is to be pressed upon every
one: “Let us draw near,” says St. Paul to all Christians, “with full
assurance of faith.”
It may serve, also, to remove an objection sometimes made to the
doctrine, and to correct an error which sometimes pervades the statement
of it, to observe that this assurance, persuasion, or conviction,
whichever term be adopted, is not of the essence of justifying faith;
that is, justifying faith does not consist in the assurance that I am
now forgiven, through Christ. This would be obviously contradictory. For
we must believe before we can be justified; much more before we can be
assured, in any degree, that we are justified:--this persuasion,
therefore, follows justification, and is one of its results. But though
we must not only distinguish, but separate, this persuasion of our
acceptance from the faith which justifies, we must not separate it, but
only distinguish it, from justification itself. With that come in as
concomitants, adoption, the “Spirit of adoption,” and regeneration.
ADORATION, the act of rendering divine honours; or of addressing God or
any other being as supposing it to be God. (See _Worship_.) The word is
compounded of _ad_, “to,” and _os_, “mouth;” and literally signifies to
apply the hand to the mouth; _manum ad os admovere_, “to kiss the hand;”
this being in eastern countries one of the great marks of respect and
submission. To this mode of idolatrous worship Job refers, xxxi, 26, 27.
See also 1 Kings xix, 18.
The Jewish manner of adoration was by prostration, bowing, and kneeling.
The Christians adopted the Grecian, rather than the Roman, method, and
always adored uncovered. The ordinary posture of the ancient Christians
was kneeling; but on Sundays, standing.
ADORATION is also used for certain extraordinary acts of civil honour,
which resemble those paid to the Deity, yet are given to men.
We read of adorations paid to kings, princes, emperors, popes, bishops,
abbots, &c, by kneeling, falling prostrate, kissing the feet, hands,
garments, &c.
The Persian manner of adoration, introduced by Cyrus, was by bending the
knee, and falling on the face at the prince’s feet, striking the earth
with the forehead, and kissing the ground. This was an indispensable
condition on the part of foreign ministers and ambassadors, as well as
the king’s own vassals, of being admitted to audience, and of obtaining
any favour. This token of reverence was ordered to be paid to their
favourites as well as to themselves, as we learn from the history of
Haman and Mordecai, in the book of Esther; and even to their statues and
images; for Philostratus informs us that, in the time of Apollonius, a
golden statue of the king was exposed to all who entered Babylon, and
none but those who adored it were admitted within the gates. The
ceremony, which the Greeks called ϖροσκυνεῖν, Conon refused to perform
to Artaxerxes, and Callisthenes to Alexander the Great, as reputing it
impious and unlawful.
The adoration performed to the Roman and Grecian emperors consisted in
bowing or kneeling at the prince’s feet, laying hold of his purple robe,
and then bringing the hand to the lips. Some attribute the origin of
this practice to Constantius. They were only persons of rank or dignity
that were entitled to the honour. Bare kneeling before the emperor to
deliver a petition, was also called adoration.
It is particularly said of Dioclesian, that he had gems fastened to his
shoes, that divine honours might be more willingly paid him, by kissing
his feet. And this mode of adoration was continued till the last age of
the Greek monarchy. When any one pays his respects to the king of Achen
in Sumatra, he first takes off his shoes and stockings, and leaves them
at the door.
The practice of adoration may be said to be still subsisting in England,
in the custom of kissing the king’s or queen’s hand.
Adoration is also used in the court of Rome, in the ceremony of kissing
the pope’s feet. It is not certain at what period this practice was
introduced into the church: but it was probably borrowed from the
Byzantine court, and accompanied the temporal power. Dr. Maclaine, in
the chronological table which he has subjoined to his translation of
Mosheim’s _Ecclesiastical History_, places its introduction in the
eighth century, immediately after the grant of Pepin and Charlemagne.
Baronius traces it to a much higher antiquity, and pretends that
examples of this homage to the vicars of Christ occur so early as the
year 204. These prelates finding a vehement disposition in the people to
fall down before them, and kiss their feet, procured crucifixes to be
fastened on their slippers; by which stratagem, the adoration intended
for the pope’s person is supposed to be transferred to Christ. Divers
acts of this adoration we find offered even by princes to the pope; and
Gregory XIII, claims this act of homage as a duty.
Adoration properly is paid only to the pope when placed on the altar, in
which posture the cardinals, conclavists, alone are admitted to kiss his
feet. The people are afterward admitted to do the like at St. Peter’s
church; the ceremony is described at large by Guicciardin.
Adoration is more particularly used for kissing one’s hand in presence
of another as a token of reverence. The Jews adored by kissing their
hands, and bowing down their heads; whence in their language kissing is
properly used for adoration. This illustrates a passage in Psalm ii,
“Kiss the Son lest he be angry;”--that is, pay him _homage_ and
_worship_.
It was the practice among the Greek Christians to worship with the head
uncovered, 1 Cor. xi; but in the east the ancient custom of worshipping
with the head covered was retained.
ADRAMMELECH, the son of Sennacherib, king of Assyria. The king returning
to Nineveh, after his unhappy expedition made into Judea against king
Hezekiah, was killed by his two sons, Adrammelech and Sharezer, whilst
at his devotions in the temple of his god Nisroch, Isaiah xxxvii, 38; 2
Kings xix. It is not known what prompted these two princes to commit
this parricide; but after they had committed the murder, they fled for
safety to the mountains of Armenia, and their brother, Esarhaddon,
succeeded to the crown.
ADRAMMELECH was also one of the gods adored by the inhabitants of
Sepharvaim, who were settled in the country of Samaria, in the room of
the Israelites, who were carried beyond the Euphrates. The Sepharvaites
made their children pass through the fire in honour of this idol, and
another, called _Anammelech_, 2 Kings xvii, 31. The Rabbins say, that
Adrammelech was represented under the form of a mule; but there is much
more reason to believe that Adrammelech meant the sun, and Anammelech
the moon; the first signifying _the magnificent king_, the second _the
gentle king_,--many eastern nations adoring the moon as a _god_, not as
a _goddess_.
ADRAMYTTIUM, a city on the west coast of Mysia, in Lesser Asia, over
against the isle of Lesbos. It was in a ship belonging to this place,
that St. Paul sailed from Cesarea to proceed to Rome as a prisoner, Acts
xxvii, 2. It is now called _Edremit_.
ADRIA. This name, which occurs in Acts xxvii, 27, is now confined to the
gulf lying between Italy on the one side, and the coasts of Dalmatia and
Albania on the other. But in St. Paul’s time it was extended to all that
portion of the Mediterranean between Crete and Sicily. Thus Ptolemy says
that Sicily was bounded on the east by the Adriatic, and Crete in a
similar manner on the west; and Strabo says that the Ionian Gulf was a
part of what, in his time, was called the Adriatic Sea.
ADULLAM, a city in the tribe of Judah, to the west of Hebron, whose king
was slain by Joshua, Josh. xii, 15. It is frequently mentioned in the
history of Saul and David; and is chiefly memorable from the cave in its
neighbourhood, where David retired from Achish, king of Gath, when he
was joined by the distressed and discontented, to the number of four
hundred, over whom he became captain, 1 Sam. xxii, 1. Judas Maccabeus
encamped in the plain of Adullam, where he passed the Sabbath day, 2
Mac. xii, 38. Eusebius says that, in his time, Adullam was a very great
town, ten miles to the east of Eleutheropolis.
ADULTERY, the violation of the marriage bed. The law of Moses punished
with death both the man and the woman who were guilty of this crime,
Lev. xx, 10. If a woman was betrothed to a man, and was guilty of this
infamous crime before the marriage was completed, she was, in this case,
along with her paramour, to be stoned, Deut. xxii, 22–24.
When any man among the Jews, prompted by jealousy, suspected his wife of
the crime of adultery, he brought her first before the judges, and
informed them that, in consequence of his suspicions, he had privately
admonished her, but that she was regardless of his admonitions. If
before the judges she asserted her innocency, he required that she
should drink the _waters of jealousy_, that God might by these means
discover what she attempted to conceal, Num. v, 12, &c. The man then
produced his witnesses, and they were heard. After this, both the man
and the woman were conveyed to Jerusalem, and placed before the
sanhedrim; the judges of which, by threats and other means, endeavoured
to confound the woman, and make her confess. If she persisted in denying
the fact, she was led to the eastern gate of the court of Israel,
stripped of her own clothes, and dressed in black, before great numbers
of her own sex. The priest then told her, that if she was really
innocent, she had nothing to fear; but if guilty, she might expect to
suffer all that the law had denounced against her, to which she
answered, “Amen, amen.” The priest then wrote the terms of the law in
this form:--“If a strange man hath not come near you, and you are not
polluted by forsaking the bed of your husband, these bitter waters,
which I have cursed, will not hurt you: but if you have polluted
yourself by coming near to another man, and gone astray from your
husband,--may you be accursed of the Lord, and become an example for all
his people; may your thigh rot, and your belly swell till it burst; may
these cursed waters enter into your belly, and being swelled therewith,
may your thighs putrefy.“
After this, the priest filled a pitcher out of the brazen vessel, near
the altar of burnt offerings, cast some dust of the pavement into it,
mingled something with it as bitter as wormwood, and then read the
curses, and received her answer of Amen. Another priest, in the
meantime, tore off her clothes as low as her bosom--made her head
bare--untied the tresses of her hair--fastened her clothes, which were
thus torn, with a girdle under her breasts, and then presented her with
the tenth part of an ephah, or about three pints, of barley meal. The
other priest then gave her the _waters of jealousy_, or bitterness, to
drink; and as soon as the woman had swallowed them, he gave her the meal
in a vessel like a frying-pan into her hand. This was stirred before the
Lord, and part of it thrown into the fire of the altar. If the wife was
innocent, she returned with her husband, and the waters, so far from
injuring her, increased her health, and made her more fruitful; but if
she was guilty, she grew pale immediately, her eyes swelled; and, lest
she should pollute the temple, she was instantly carried out, with these
symptoms upon her, and died instantly, with all the ignominious
circumstances related in the curses.
On this law of Moses, Michaëlis has the following remarks:--
“This oath was, perhaps, a relic of some more severe and barbarous
consuetudinary laws, whose rigours Moses mitigated; as he did in many
other cases, where an established usage could not be conveniently
abolished altogether. Among ourselves, in barbarous times, the _ordeal_,
or trial by fire, was, notwithstanding the parity of our married people,
in common use; and this, in point of equity, was much the same in
effect, as if the husband had had the right to insist on his wife
submitting to the hazardous trial of her purity, by drinking a poisoned
potion; which, according to an ancient superstition, could never hurt
her if she was innocent. And, in fact, such a right is not altogether
unexampled; for, according to Oldendorp’s _History of the Mission of the
Evangelical Brethren, in the Caribbee Islands_, it is actually in use
among some of the savage nations in the interior parts of Western
Africa.