xxii, 13; Hosea xiii, 8; Micah v, 8; a large beast of prey, for his
courage and strength called the king of beasts. This animal is produced
in Africa, and the hottest parts of Asia. It is found in the greatest
numbers in the scorched and desolate regions of the torrid zone, in the
deserts of Zaara and Billdulgerid, and in all the interior parts of the
vast continent of Africa. In these desert regions, from whence mankind
are driven by the rigorous heat of the climate, this animal reigns sole
master. His disposition seems to partake of the ardour of his native
soil. Inflamed by the influence of a burning sun, his rage is
tremendous, and his courage undaunted. Happily, indeed, the species is
not numerous, and is said to be greatly diminished; for, if we may
credit the testimony of those who have traversed those vast deserts, the
number of lions is not nearly so great as formerly. Mr. Shaw observes
that the Romans carried more lions from Libya in one year for their
public spectacles, than could be found in all that country at this time.
The lion was also found in Palestine, and the neighbouring countries.
The length of the largest lion is between eight and nine feet, the tail
about four, and its height about four feet and a half. The female is
about one-fourth part less, and without a mane. As the lion advances in
years, his mane grows longer and thicker. The hair on the rest of the
body is short and smooth, of a tawny colour, but whitish on the belly.
Its roaring is loud and dreadful. When heard in the night it resembles
distant thunder. Its cry of anger is much louder and shorter. The
attachment of a lioness to her young is remarkably strong. For their
support she is more ferocious than the lion himself; makes her
incursions with greater boldness; destroys, without distinction, every
animal that falls in her way, and carries it reeking to her cubs. She
usually brings forth in the most retired and inaccessible places; and
when afraid that her retreat should be discovered, endeavours to hide
her track by brushing the ground with her tail. When much disturbed or
alarmed, she will sometimes transport her young, which are usually three
or four in number, from one place to another in her mouth; and, if
obstructed in her course, will defend them to the last extremity. The
habits of the lion and the lioness afford many spirited, and often
sublime, metaphors to the sacred writers.
The lion has several names in Scripture, according to his different ages
or character: 1. גור, a little lion, a lion’s whelp, Deut. xxxiii, 22;
Jer. li, 38; Ezek. xix, 2; Nahum ii, 13. 2. כפיר, a young lion that has
done sucking the lioness, and, leaving the covert, begins to seek prey
for himself. So Ezekiel xix, 2, 3: The lioness hath brought up one of
her whelps; it became a _chephir_; it learned to catch the prey; it
devoured men.” See Psalm xci, 13; Prov. xix, 12. 3. ארי, a grown and
vigorous lion, having whelps, eager in pursuit of prey for them, Nahum
ii, 12; valiant, 2 Sam. xvii, 10; arrogantly opposing himself, Num.
xxiii, 24. This is, indeed, the general name, and occurs frequently. 4.
שחל, one in the full strength of his age; a black lion, Job iv, 10; x,
16; Psalm xci, 13; Prov. xxvi, 13; Hosea v, 14; xiii, 7. 5. ליש, a
fierce or enraged lion, Job iv, 11; Prov. xxx, 30; Isaiah xxv, 6. A
regard to these characteristics and distinctions is very important for
illustrating the passages of Scripture where the animal is spoken of,
and discovering the propriety of the allusions and metaphors which he so
often furnishes to the Hebrew poets. The lion of the tribe of Judah,
mentioned Rev. v, 5, is Jesus Christ, who sprung from the tribe of
Judah, and overcame death, the world, and the devil. The lion from the
swelling of Jordan, Jer. l, 44, is Nebuchadnezzar marching against
Judea, with the strength and fierceness of a lion. Isaiah, describing
the happy time of the Messiah, says, that then the calf, and the young
lion, and the fatling should lie down together; and that a little child
should lead them; and that the lion should eat straw like the ox, Isaiah
xi, 6, 7, which is hyperbolical, and signifies the peace and happiness
which the church of Christ should enjoy. The lion hath roared, and who
shall not fear?” Amos iii, 8. “The king’s wrath is as the roaring of a
lion. Who provoketh him to anger sinneth against his own soul,” Prov.
xix, 12; xx, 2; that is, he seeketh his own death. Solomon says, A
living dog is better than a dead lion,” Eccles. x, 4; showing that death
renders those contemptible who otherwise are the greatest, most
powerful, and most terrible.
Then went Samson down and, behold, a young lion roared against him, and
the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he rent him as he
would have rent a kid, and he had nothing in his hand,” Judges xiv, 5,
6. An instance in quite modern times of an unarmed man attempting to
combat a lion is related by Poiret: “In a douar, or a camp of Bedouin
Arabs, near La Calle, a French factory, a young lion had seized a cow. A
young Moor threw himself upon the savage beast, to tear his booty from
him, and as it were to stifle him in his arms, but he would not let go
his prey. The father of the young man hastened to him, armed with a kind
of hoe; and aiming at the lion, struck his son’s hand, and cut off three
of his fingers. It cost a great deal of trouble to rescue the prey from
the lion. I saw this young man, who was attended by Mr. Gay, at that
time surgeon to the hospital of La Calle.” David, according to 1 Sam.
xvii, 34, had, when a shepherd, once fought with a lion, and another
time with a bear, and rescued their prey from them. Tellez relates, that
an Abyssinian shepherd had once killed a lion of extraordinary size with
only two poles. Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the swelling
of Jordan against the habitation of the strong,” Jer. xlix, 19. The
comparison used by the prophet in these words will be perfectly
understood by the account which Mr. Maundrell gives of the river Jordan:
After having descended,” says he, “the outermost bank of Jordan, you go
about a furlong upon a level strand, before you come to the immediate
bank of the river. This second bank is so beset with bushes and trees,
such as tamarisks, willows, oleanders, &c, that you can see no water
till you have made your way through them. In this thicket anciently, and
the same is reported of it at this day, several sorts of wild beasts
were wont to harbour themselves, whose being washed out of the covert by
the overflowings of the river gave occasion to that allusion: ‘He shall
come up like a lion from the swelling of Jordan.’”
He shall be cast into the den of lions,” Dan. vi, 7. In Morocco,” says
Höst, “the king has a lions’ den, into which men, particularly Jews, are
sometimes thrown; but the latter generally come off unhurt, because the
keepers of these animals are Jews, who may safely be with them, with a
rod in the hand, if they only take care to go out backward, as the lion
does not suffer any one to turn his back upon him. The other Jews do not
let their brethren remain longer than a night among the lions, as they
might otherwise become too hungry; but ransom them with money, which is,
in fact, the king’s object.” In another place in the same work we find
the following description of the construction of this lions’ den: “At
one end of the royal palace there is a place for ostriches and their
young; and beyond the other end, toward the mountains, there is a large
lions’ den, which consists of a large square hole in the ground, with a
partition, in the middle of which there is a door, which the Jews, who
are obliged to maintain and keep them for nothing, are able to open and
shut from above, and can thus entice the lions, by means of the food,
from one division to the other, to clean the other in the mean time. It
is all in the open air, and a person may look down over a wall, which is
a yard and a quarter high.”
LITANY, a solemn form of supplication to God. The word is derived from
λιτανεία, _supplication_. At first the use of litanies was not fixed to
any stated time; but they were employed only as exigencies required.
They were observed in imitation of the Ninevites with ardent
supplications and fastings, to avert the threatened judgments of fire,
earthquake, inundations, or hostile invasions. The days on which they
were used were called rogation days. Several of these days were
appointed by the canons of different councils, till the seventeenth
council of Toledo decreed that litanies should be used in every month.
Thus, by degrees, these solemn supplications came to be used weekly, on
Wednesdays and Fridays, the ancient stationary days in all churches. As
to the form in which litanies are made, namely, in short petitions by
the priest with responses by the people, St. Chrysostom derives the
custom from the primitive ages, when the priest began and uttered by the
Spirit some things fit to be prayed for, and the people joined the
intercessions, saying, We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.” When the
miraculous gift of the Spirit began to cease, they wrote down several of
these forms, which were the original of our present litanies. St.
Ambrose has left us one, which agrees in many particulars with that of
our own church. About the year 400, litanies began to be used in
processions, the people walking barefoot, and repeating them with great
devotion. It is pretended that several countries were delivered from
great calamities by this means. About the year 600, Gregory the Great,
from all the litanies extant, composed the famous sevenfold litany, by
which Rome, it is said, was delivered from a grievous mortality. This
has served as a pattern to all the western churches since; and to it
ours of the church of England comes nearer than that of the Romish
missal, in which later popes have inserted the invocation of saints,
which our Reformers properly expunged. These processional litanies
having occasioned much scandal, it was decreed that in future the
litanies should be used only within the walls of the church. Before the
last review of the Common Prayer, the litany was a distinct service by
itself, and used some time after the morning prayer was ended. At
present it forms one office with the morning service, being ordered to
be read after the third collect for grace, instead of the intercessional
prayers in the daily service.
LITURGY denotes all the ceremonies in general belonging to divine
service. The word comes from the Greek, λειτȣργία, _public service_, or
_public ministry_; formed of λεῖτος, _public_, and ἔργον, _work_. In a
more restrained signification, liturgy is used among the Romanists to
signify the mass; and among us, the common prayer. All who have written
on liturgies agree that, in primitive days, divine service was
exceedingly simple, clogged with very few ceremonies, and consisted of
but a very small number of prayers; but, by degrees, they increased the
number of ceremonies, and added new prayers, to render the office more
awful and venerable to the people. At length, things were carried to
such a pitch that a regulation became necessary; and it was found
needful to put the service, and the manner of performing it, into
writing; and this was what they called a liturgy. Liturgies have been
different at different times and in different countries. We have the
liturgy of St. Chrysostom, of St. Peter, the Armenian liturgy, Gallican
liturgy, &c. The properties required in a public liturgy,” says Paley,
are these: it must be compendious; express just conceptions of the
divine attributes; recite such wants as a congregation are likely to
feel, and no other; and contain as few controverted propositions as
possible.” The liturgy of the church of England was composed A. D. 1547,
and established in the second year of King Edward VI. In the fifth year
of this prince, it was reviewed, because some things were contained in
that liturgy which showed a compliance with the superstitions of those
times; and exceptions were taken against it by learned men at home, and
by Calvin abroad. Some alterations were made in it, which consisted in
adding the general confession and absolution, and the communion service,
to begin with the commandments. The use of oil in confirmation and
extreme unction, was left out, and also prayers for souls departed, and
what related to a belief of the real presence of Christ in the
eucharist. The liturgy, so reformed, was established by the acts of 5th
and 6th of Edward VI., chap. 1. However, it was abolished by Queen Mary,
who enacted that the service should stand as it was commonly used in the
last year of King Henry VIII. That of Edward VI. was reëstablished, with
some few alterations, by Elizabeth. Some farther alterations were
introduced, in consequence of the review of the Common Prayer Book, by
order of King James, in the first year of his reign; particularly in the
office of private baptism, in several rubrics, and other passages, with
the addition of five or six new prayers and thanksgivings, and all that
part of the catechism which contains the doctrines of the sacraments.
This Book of Common Prayer, so altered, remained in force from the first
year of King James to the fourteenth of Charles II. The last review of
the liturgy was in the year 1661. It is an invidious cavil, says Dr.
Nichols, that our liturgy was compiled out of popish books. Our
reformers took nothing from them, but what was taken before from the
oldest writers. We have many things out of the Greek liturgies of Basil
and Chrysostom; more out of the litanies of Ambrose and Gregory; very
much out of the ancient forms of the church dispersed in the works of
the fathers, who wrote long before the Roman Breviary, and Canon of the
Mass. Our Reformers added many prayers, and thanksgivings, and
exhortations, to supply the defect.
LIZARD, לטאה, Levit. xi, 30. All interpreters agree that the original
word here signifies a sort of lizard. Bochart takes it for that kind
which is of a reddish colour, lies close to the earth, and is of a
venomous nature.
LOCUST, ארבה. The word is probably derived from רבה, which signifies _to
multiply_, _to become numerous_, &c; because of the immense swarms of
these animals by which different countries, especially in the east, are
infested. See this circumstance referred to, Judges vi, 5; vii, 12;
Psalm cv, 34; Jer. xlvi, 23; li, 14; Joel i, 4; Nahum iii, 15; Judith
ii, 19, 20; where the most numerous armies are compared to the _arbeh_,
or locust.
The locust, in entomology, belongs to a genus of insects known among
naturalists by the name of _grylli_. The common greatσκνιφες brown
locust is about three inches in length, has two antennæ about an inch
long, and two pairs of wings. The head and horns are brown; the mouth,
and insides of the larger legs, bluish; the upper side of the body, and
upper wings, brown; the former spotted with black, and the latter with
dusky, spots. The back is defended by a shield of a greenish hue; the
under wings are of a light brown hue, tinctured with green, and nearly
transparent. The general form and appearance of the insect is that of
the grasshopper so well known in this country. These creatures are
frequently mentioned in the Old Testament. They were employed as one of
the plagues for the punishment of the Egyptians; and their visitation
was threatened to the Israelites as a mark of the divine displeasure.
Their numbers and destructive powers very aptly fit them for this
purpose. When they take the field, they always follow a leader, whose
motions they invariably observe. They often migrate from their native
country, probably in quest of a greater supply of food. On these
occasions they appear in such large flocks as to darken the air; forming
many compact bodies or swarms, of several hundred yards square. These
flights are very frequent in Barbary, and generally happen at the latter
end of March or beginning of April, after the wind has blown from the
south for some days. The month following, the young brood also make
their appearance, generally following the track of the old ones. In
whatever country they settle, they devour all the vegetables, grain,
and, in fine, all the produce of the earth; eating the very bark off the
trees; thus destroying at once the hopes of the husbandman, and all the
labours of agriculture: for though their voracity is great, yet they
contaminate a much greater quantity than they devour; as their bite is
poisonous to vegetables, and the marks of devastation may be traced for
several succeeding seasons. There are various species of them, which
consequently have different names; and some are more voracious and
destructive than others, though all are most destructive and insatiable
spoilers. Bochart enumerates ten different kinds which he thinks are
mentioned in the Scripture.
Writers in natural history bear abundant testimony to the Scriptural
account of these creatures. Dr. Shaw describes at large the numerous
swarms and prodigious broods of those locusts which he saw in Barbary.
Dr. Russel says, Of the noxious kinds of insects may well be reckoned
the locusts, which sometimes arrive in such incredible multitudes, that
it would appear fabulous to give a relation of them; destroying the
whole of the verdure wherever they pass.” Captain Woodroffe, who was for
some time at Astrachan, a city near the Volga, sixty miles to the
north-west of the Caspian Sea, in latitude 47°, assures us, that, from
the latter end of July to the beginning of October, the country about
that city is frequently infested with locusts, which fly in such
prodigious numbers as to darken the air, and appear at a distance as a
heavy cloud. As for the Mosaic permission to the Jews of eating the
locusts, Lev. xi, 22, however strange it may appear to the mere English
reader, yet nothing is more certain than that several nations, both of
Asia and Africa, anciently used these insects for food; and that they
are still eaten in the east to this day. Niebhur gives some account of
the several species of locusts eaten by the Arabs, and of their
different ways of dressing them for food. The Europeans,” he adds, do
not comprehend how the Arabs can eat locusts with pleasure; and those
Arabs who have had no intercourse with the Christians will not believe,
in their turn, that these latter reckon oysters, crabs, shrimps,
cray-fish, &c, for dainties. These two facts, however, are equally
certain.” Locusts are often used figuratively by the prophets, for
invading armies; and their swarms aptly represented the numbers, the
desolating march of the vast military hordes and their predatory
followers, which the ancient conquerors of the east poured down upon
every country they attacked.
LOG, Lev. xiv, 12, a Hebrew measure for things liquid, containing
five-sixths of a pint.
LOLLARDS, the supposed followers of Walter Lollard, or rather of Walter
the Lollard, who, according to Dr. Mosheim, was a Dutchman of remarkable
eloquence and piety, though tinctured with mysticism, and who, for
teaching sentiments contrary to the church of Rome, and nearly
corresponding with those of Wickliffe, was burned alive at Cologne in
1322. But before this there existed, in different parts of Germany and
Flanders, various societies of Cellites, to whom the term Lollards was
applied, and who were protected by the magistrates and inhabitants, on
account of their usefulness to the sick, and in burying the dead. They
received the name Lollards, from the old German or Belgic word _lullen_,
(Latin, _lallo_,) to sing with a low voice,” to _lull_ to sleep,”
(whence _lullaby_,) because when they carried to the grave, the bed of
death, such as died of the plague, which at that period ravaged all
Europe, they sung a dirge or hymn, probably, in a soft and mournful
tone. These Lollards obtained many papal grants, by which their
institution was confirmed, their persons exempted from the cognizance of
the inquisitors, and subjected entirely to the jurisdiction of the
bishops; and, at last, for their farther security, Charles, duke of
Burgundy, in 1472, obtained a bull from Pope Sixtus IV., by which they
were ranked among the religious orders, and delivered from the
jurisdiction of their bishops; which privileges were yet more extended
by Pope Julius II. in 1506.
In England the followers of Wickliffe were called Lollards by way of
reproach, either on account of the humble offices of the original
Lollards, (the Cellites,) or from the attachment of the Wickliffites to
singing hymns. Their enemies probably meant to describe them as poor
melancholy creatures, only fit to sing psalms at a funeral.
LOOKING GLASS. Moses states that the women who waited all night at the
door of the tabernacle, cheerfully offered their looking glasses, to be
employed in making a brazen laver for the purification of the priests,
Exod. xxxviii, 8. These looking glasses were doubtless of brass, since
the basin here mentioned, and the basis thereof, were made from them.
The ancient looking glasses were mirrors, not made of glass as ours; but
of brass, tin, silver, and a mixture of brass and silver, which last
were the best and most valuable.
LORD’s DAY. See SABBATH.
LORD’s SUPPER, an ordinance instituted by our Saviour in commemoration
of his death and sufferings. The institution of this sacrament is
recorded by the first three evangelists, and by the Apostle Paul, whose
words differ very little from those of his companion St. Luke; and the
only difference between St. Matthew and St. Mark is, that the latter
omits the words, for the remission of sins.” There is so general an
agreement among them all, that it will only be necessary to recite the
words of one of them: Now, when the even was come, he sat down with the
twelve,” to eat the passover which had been prepared by his direction;
and as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it,
and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat: this is my body. And
he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye
all of it; for this is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for
many for the remission of sins,” Matt. xxvi, 20, 26–28. The sacrament of
the Lord’s Supper being thus instituted, was adopted by all the early
Christians, with very few exceptions; and no modern sect rejects it,
except the Quakers and some mystics, who make the whole of religion to
consist of contemplative love.