20. The qualities of wine we must next consider, of which Noah is mentioned (Gen. xix.) as the inventor. From this it appears to have been of a very ancient date; and its moderate and temperate use is strongly recommended by the son of Sirach, ch. xxxi. 27, " Wine is good as life to man, if drank moderately." In Psalm civ. 15, the power of gladdening the heart of man is given to wine. The first mentioned writer prescribes it under the blow of adversity: "Wine measureably drank and in season bringeth gladness of the heart and cheerfulness of the mind;" and in chap. xi. "Wine and music bring joy to the heart." To these we may add the words of Solomon, (Provxxxi. 6,7): "Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine to those who be of heavy heart; let him drink and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more." Among those remedies which strengthen the entire frame, as, promoting the circulation of the blood, giving a free perspiration to the body, and raising its decayed vigour, wine, if it be not sour, obtains the principal place. On this account, Paul prescribes to his son Timothy, then labouring under a weakness of appetite, the use of wine, 1 Tim. v. 23. We cannot sufficiently extol the excellency and utility of wine in a weakness of appetite, or a want of digestion; of the good effects of which we have daily experience. It is in particular useful to people who lead a sedentary life, to such as are subject to hypochondriacs, or similar cold disorders.-See. Shaw on the Use of the Grape. 21. While Holy Scripture permits and even recommends the moderate use of wine, so does it also forbid us to drink it to excess. The apostles, in different parts of the New Testament, strictly forbid drunkenness, as producing and nurturing every species of vice, and seducing us from the road to salvation. Solomon, the wise king of Israel, gives a fine and expressive account of the evils which arise from this practice, both with reference to the mind and the body, in Prov. xxiii. 29, &c. "Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes? They who tarry long at the wine when it is red, when it giveth its colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things. Yea, thou shalt be as he who lieth down in the midst of the sea, or he who lieth on the top of a mast." Ecclesiasticus says of it, that it seduceth the prudent, (chap. xxxi. 25:) "Show not thy valiantness in wine, for wine hath destroyed many;" and in ver. 30, " Drunkenness increaseth the rage of a fool till he offend; it diminisheth strength and maketh wounds." Every person knows what disorders are produced in the body by wine, and more particularly if it be too sweet, acid, or strong; or if it contain a vapourous sulphur. Humours are increased, and disorders gain strength by the use of sweet wines. Strong wines greatly disturb the blood and other fluids, and, at the same time, increase the heat in young persons, and men of a warm constitution; it produces choler and hæmorrhages, burning fevers, cramps, gouty disorders, and frequently con vulsions. Such as have a vapourous sulphur proceeding from them, are injurious to the nerves and head; whence we derive such complaints as heavinesses, headaches, palsies, and epilepsies. It will not be foreign to my purpose here to insert Valleriola's opinion of wine, in the second book of his Enarrationum Medicinalium, Enarr. IV. “A multitude of diseases is introduced into the human body by wine, according to its age, strength, and quantity drank. When it is drank immoderately, it overturns the brain, fills the nerves, causes fluxes, injures the understanding, and diminishes the strength. Weak wine is not nourishing; if sweet, it stops up the pores; when thick and black, it does not pass readily, but remains a long time in the belly; if old, it is too heating; when new, it produces a swimming in the stomach; acid wines bring the cholic, and are hurtful to the nerves." If we desire to enjoy health, we must avoid all excessive use of a drink so dangerous, and refuse all others which have either sweetness or acidity, or any other of its quali ties in a great degree. 22. I shall next proceed to enumerate the many and great advantages which exercise bestows on man. Labour is both spoken of and recommended in the sacred writings. Eccles. xxxi. "Be diligent in all thy undertakings, and no misfortune shall attend thee." 2 Thess. iii. 10, St. Paul says, " He who will not work, neither let him eat." Expe rienced physicians of every age have spoken highly of the benefits of exercise, whether by labour or other methods. Hippocrates says, that "a person who eats cannot be well unless he takes exercise. These two have contrary effects; both together conduce to health.” “If men,” says Sanctorius, in his Medicinal Statica, “exercised themselves at proper seasons, they would require neither physicians nor physic." Nothing is more proper for promoting the circulation of the blood, and freeing the fluids from impurities, than the external motions of the muscles Laborious people are generally robust, healthy, and long-lived; they are seldom troubled with the gout, stone, hypochondriac distempers, cachexies, scurvies, or dropsies. On the contrary, those who weaken themselves by idleness, or are addicted to a sedentary life, are always exposed to these distempers, more particularly if they indulge themselves, and are in the habit of living in plenty. Health is the peculiar portion of those who, agreeably to the command of the Supreme Being, eat their bread by the sweat of their brow, Gen. iii. 23. But as moderation in all things is best suited to our constitution, exercise should be neither excessive nor continual; but moderate, and alleviated by rest. Since health is the great object which we all desire to obtain, we should take exercise and rest alternately. This was not the least consideration, probably, which influenced the Almighty to appoint the seventh day, on which men may rest from their labours. The 24. Sleeping and waking require a regimen not less carefully to be attended to than what we have mentioned in the former sections. fatigued are directed to recover their strength by sleep, Eccles. v. 12: "Sweet and serviceable is the sleep of the labourer." Sleep is, indeed, immediately necessary for the preservation of health: no person can exist for any length of time without it. By its means, the fatigued limbs recover their strength, and are rendered capable of enduring their usual labours. It is also astonishing, that sleep enlivens the soul, and gives her alertness and readiness in the performance of her several functions. But when carried beyond the proper bounds of moderation, it is no less effectual in diminishing the mental and corporeal faculties. In this case, sleep produces a giddiness and torpor in the head; it induces languor; it impedes too much the influx of the subtle brisk fluid, which is the cause of motion, into the nerves and solid parts; in consequence of which, the fluids derive a grossness, and the body becomes obnoxious to chronical distempers. Solomon persuades us against intemperance in this respect: "Give not sleep to thine eyes, nor slumber to thine eyelids," Prov. xi. 4. By these words, he does not intend to encourage entire abstinence from it; for, being moderately used, it has nothing culpable, but is necessary to the health of man. Immoderate and long protracted wakefulness is highly detrimental to the constitution; for the digestion is injured by it, the face is made pallid, the body becomes emaciated, and the eyes sunk and hollow. 25. There is yet another diatetic rule of very great importance, which we find in Eccles. xxxvii. 27: "My son, prove thy soul in thy life, and see what is evil for it, and give not that unto it. For all things are not profitable unto all men." The son of Sirach advises us in these words to consider our constitution, and what in particular is serviceable or injurious to it. For as constitutions are so very different, it seldom happens that the same things are fit for different persons. Celsus and experience inform us, that to the healthy all things are healthy. But as there is a very great variety of natures, and some are more robust than others, we cannot infer the wholesomeness, of aliments from their general effects, but rather from the particular strength of that body which they are then to nourish. The man who desires to preserve his health ought to inquire accurately, and carefully observe the particular constitution of his body, in order that he may be enabled to judge what things are serviceable, and what things are injurious to it. Were men cautious and careful in their mode of life, they would seldom need a physician 26. I shall conclude with exhorting every person who desires to enjoy health to the practice of true piety. Religion, when it is sincerely put in practice, and does not rest in bare speculation, obtains, with justice, the name of a medicine for the body. On this account, it is not without a natural reason that the Almighty promises a long life to those who fear him and obey his commandments; to the wicked, and those given up to the enjoyment of pleasure, he assigns a short life, as a punishment. Solomon says of the precepts of wisdom," Length of days and long life and peace shall they add to thee," Prov. iii. 2; and in chap. xxvii. 10, "The fear of the Lord prolongeth days, but the years of the wicked shall be shortened." To these may be added chap. iii. 16: iv. 22: ix. 10, 11; all having the same meaning. The son of Sirach says, (chap. i. 12.) The fear of the Lord maketh a merry heart, and giveth joy and gladness and a long life;" and St. Paul, in his first epistle to Timothy, "Godliness is profitable unto all things, having the promise of this life and that which is to come." The man who is truly pious so regulates his conduct, that he preserves a sound mind in a sound body, by which means he becomes a partaker of the happiness of this life and of the future. That man who is truly pious, and who has obtained the gift of the Holy Spirit, has his heart at ease, and is very little troubled by outward commotions; all his life he rejoices in the Lord; he is not depressed by adversity; he endures evils, contumelies, and injuries, with patience, and diligently labours in that situation in which he has been placed. He uses properly, and with moderation, meat, drink, sleep, and those other things of which the body stands in need, which he keeps free from carnal concupiscence. By these methods, the pious and virtuous man enjoys health and a long life. Many divines and good men have lived to an old age by such a constitution of soul. Whereas, on the contrary, those who are drawn from the path of piety by their corrupt and depraved affections, being moderate in nothing, are distracted by different passions and desires, and make an ill use of those things, on the proper employment of which depends our health. For peace is not the portion of the wicked; they are the slaves of gluttony and debaucheries. By such a course of life, they become a prey to a variety of distempers, and cut short in the flower of their age the thread of life, which might have been spun out much further, according to the common course of things. Let the man who desires to enjoy health and a long life, do every thing in his power to make himself worthy of possessing the Divine grace; by the assistance of which he cannot fail to obtain happiness, both in this world and that which is to come. R. G. Poetry. JESUS ON THE CROSS. MIGHTY, changeless God above! Righteous! Whose unutterable love Led thee on the cross to die, Even for us. Thou who all our sins didst bear, Lead us where thy promise led Bowring's Spanish Poetry. Biblical Translation.' PART the second of this "Essay" comprises a variety of interesting considerations, which are mostly of a scientific character. Generally speaking, they will be found to belong either to the Cosmography, Theology, Natural Science, or Manufactures of the "Scripture Encyclopædia." See Vol. III. of this Mag. p. 578. "CHAP. I.—The versions often confound the persons, countries, and actions, of which the Scripture speaks." Gen. x. 11, should be rendered," He went to war against Assyria," according to Jerome and others. "When the name Assur signifies the son of Shem, it should be kept in a version; but when a country, it should be Assyria; and for the inhabitants of the country, Assyrians. We ought to retain the names of Israel, Esau, Edom, &c. when they denote these persons: but in denoting their posterity, they should be, the Israelites, the Edomites, &c. “It had been much more natural, and much more proper, to express the meaning of the sacred writers, to have translated them thus: Gen. x. 4—vi. 13, 14. 1 Chron. i. 7, 8, 11, 12, The Kittites and Dodanites were the posterity of Javan; the Egyptians were the posterity of Cham; the Ludites, Hananites, &c. were the descendants of the Ægyptians. "This general expression, the whole world,' should be restrained, and limited to those places of the world which are spoken of; as when the prophets speak of the ruin of the Jews; and New Testament writers, of the Roman empire: Luke xxi. 25, 26, the inhabitants of that country.' Matt. iv. 8, All the kingdoms of the Roman empire.' Rom. i. 8. Acts xi. 28. "Judg. xv. 19, should be translated, ' But God clave a hollow rock, called Mactes, which was at Lehi.' This rock is noticed, Zeph. ch. i. "The Latin Vulgate, Geneva version, and our's, have often been mistaken in translating the terms of the original, which signify some country. They always confound Arabia the Stony with Ethiopia, which was at a very great distance from it on the other side, and which the Scripture always calls Lud. See Bochart's Phaleg. viii. I; and this Essay, pp. 144-148. 1 Continued from page 286. |