contemptuous terms: Dog that thou art, once more hast thou escaped destruction: Εξ αν νυν έφυγες θανατον, κυον. The sacred writer applies the reproachful epithet, 1. To the heathen who were aliens to the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise: "It is not meet to take the children's bread and to cast it to dogs."j 2. To the profane despisers of the divine word, who cruelly persecute the ministers of religion: "Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you."k 3. To the enemies of religion in general; thus the Saviour complains: "Dogs have compassed me; the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me --- Deliver my soul from the sword: my darling from the power of the dog." 4. To the impure, that are polluted with various crimes: "For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie." 5. To those who, from worldly motives, entered into the Christian ministry, concerning whom the apostle warns the church at Philippi: "Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers;"" and whose character the prophet Isaiah has drawn in such vivid colours." ma The poets of Greece and Rome stigmatised the dog as obscene and impure, and joined him with the sow that loves to wallow in the mire. The sacred writers speak of him in similar terms: He that sacrificeth a lamb, as if he cut off a dog's neck; he that offereth an oblation, as J Mat. xiv, 26. * Mat. vii, 6. Geor. lib. i, 1. 470. Epist. ad Julium Florum. 1 Psal. xxii, 16, 20. n Phil. iii, 2. • Isa. lvi, 10, 11. Horatius. lib. i, Epist. ad Lollium, and lib. ii, if he offered swine's flesh. Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine." The dog is returned to his vomit, and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.” The law of Moses placed the dog in the class of unclean animals, and stamped upon him a peculiar mark of infamy, prohibiting an Israelite to bring the price of a dog, either in money or in goods, as an oblation to the Lord, and connecting it with the wages of prostitution: "Thou shalt not bring the hire of a whore, or the price of a dog, into the house of the Lord thy God for any VOW; for even both these are an abomination unto the Lord thy God." This special prohibition was evidently pointed against the idolatrous worship which the superstitious inhabitants of Egypt, from whence the chosen people had lately escaped, addressed to that animal. We learn this fact from Juvenal, who complains in his fifteenth satire ; "Oppida tota canem venerantur, nemo Dianam." The testimony of the Latin poet is confirmed by Diodorus, who, in his first book, assures us, that the Egyptians highly venerate some animals both during their life and after their death; and expressly mentions the dog as one object of this absurd adoration. To these unexceptionable witnesses may be added Herodotus, who says when a dog expires, all the members of the family to which he belonged, worship the carcase; and that in every part of the kingdom, the carcases of their dogs are embalmed, and deposited in consecrated ground." Anubis, who held a principal rank among the deities of Egypt, had * Mat. vii, 6. * 2 Pet. ii, 22. + Hist. 11, a Is. Ixvi, 1. d. u Lib. ii, cap. 66 and 67. See also Ælian de Nat. Animal. lib. x, c. 45. Bryant's Anal. vol. i, p. 330.—Even the Athenians sacrificed to a dog. Ibid. lib. vii, cap. 28. the head of a dog, and for this reason sustained, in the writings of Roman poets, the title of Anubis the barker. "Omnigenumque Deum monstra et latrator Anubis.” Vir. En viii, 1. 698. In other countries, the dog is not worshipped, but offered in sacrifice to their false gods. The Carians immolated a dog to Mars; and the Lacedemonians followed their example. The Boeotians ratified their covenants by cutting a dog in two, and passing between the pieces; the Macedonians, as we learn from the authentic page of Livy, observed the same custom; and the Samothracians, in a deep cavern, sacrificed dogs in honour of Hecate. To preserve the holy people from these abominations, to which, from the native darkness of the human mind, and their long residence in Egypt, they were unhappily prone, the divine lawgiver expressly forbade them to bring the price of a dog, which, in his eyes, was equally hateful as the hire of a whore, into the house of the Lord. The Hog. The sacred writers very seldom allude to this animal; because it was excluded from the land of Promise, during the whole time of the theocratical government. It seems indeed, on account of its gross habits, to have been held in great abhorrence by the patriarchs themselves, long before the ceremonial code pronounced it unclean; for we cannot discover, that it constituted any part of their wealth. The sons of Abraham by Keturah, appear to have regarded it with equal aversion as the descendants of Issac; for we do not read, that Job, who was most probably one of their posterity, possessed so much as one of these animals. The inspired writer of 1st Chronicles, mentions the Bochart. Hieroz. lib. ii, p. 678. names of several officers, whom David appointed to superintend the herds, the camels, the asses, and the flocks; but mentions no person to superintend the swine. In the wars which the people of Israel were compelled to wage with the neighbouring states, they frequently obtained an immense booty in flocks and herds, in camels and asses; but we cannot find that they met with one sow in their numerous expeditions. Porphyry, in his Book De Abstinentia, expressly denies that any swine were reared in Judea. This fact seems to be confirmed by a clause in the parable of the prodigal son, which informs us, that he went into a far country to feed swine, which would not have been necessary, had these animals been propagated in his own land. It is not inconsistent with this supposition, that in the time of our Lord, the Gadarenes possessed a herd of two thousand swine; for they were a Greek colony; or rather, the remains of the Girgashites, the aboriginal inhabitants of that region, as the name Gergesenes, given them by the evangelist Matthew, clearly indicates. Some writers maintain, that Gedara and Gergasa were different cities, inhabited by two distinct races of people; but whatever hypothesis be preferred, it is quite evident, they were not Jewish, but Grecian or Syrian cities, governed by their own laws and customs. Hence, it is by no means wonderful, that they encouraged the breed of an animal to which they felt no particular aversion, although the custom was contrary to the laws and usages of a people, whom, like the rest of the world, they probably des pised. Nor was it altogether inconsistent with the design of our Lord's ministry, to pass on certain occasions, the limits of Judea, and visit the dwellings of aliens; for the Joseph. Antiq. b. xvii, ch. 13. W W sacred writer informs us, that he departed on a time into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, where he had mercy on a woman of Canaan, who came out of the same coasts, and cured her daughter. He might therefore, with equal reason, favour the Gadarenes with his presence, and give them an illustrious proof of his omnipotent power. Nor is it inconsistent with this conduct, that, according to his own declaration to the disciples, he was not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel; for the event proved, that he spake only of the general and immediate object of his mission.x "y Many reasons have been assigned by ancient and modern writers, for the strong antipathy of the Jewish people to this animal; but these it were useless to enumerate, as the ceremonial precept is clear and precise: “And the swine, though he divide the hoof, and be cloven footed, yet he cheweth not the cud: he is unclean unto you;" and the transgression of this precept was even followed by the most pointed reproofs, and the severest threatenings. The prophet Isaiah charges his degenerate people with eating swine's flesh, and having the broth of abominable things in their vessels. They had not yet neglected to bring their sacrifices to the altar of Jehovah ; but they no longer served their God in sincerity and truth: "He that killeth an ox, is as if he slew a man; he that sacrificeth a lamb, as if he cut off a dog's neck; he that offereth an oblation, as if he offered swine's blood; he that burneth incense, as if he blessed an idol. Yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abomiConduct so contrary to their solemn engage nations."a * Lev. xi, 7. Bochart. Hieroz. lib. ii, cap. 57, p. 697. a Ch. Ixvi, 3. |