retinue of Pharaoh, and by that victory get into his power a sceptre or authority to govern the Israelites. (Exodus iii. 3, 4.)

To the same purpose was the second miracle wrought in consequence of that, when the rod of Moses turned into a serpent, Exod. vii. 9, 12, swallowed up those of the magicians; for that plainly shewed and signified the power of Moses to overcome the magicians in their enchantments, and to rescue Israel out of their hands.

TEARS.

Isa. xxv. 8, “ And the Lord Jehovah shall wipe away the tear from off all faces."

Rev. vii. 17, " And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes."

See also Rev. xxi. 4.

Tears are the well known emblems and usual accompaniments of grief; and as grief is generally most violent when it is indulged for the dead, so here, in two of the above passages, the wiping away of tears is connected with the abolition of death.

Isaiah xxv. 8, " He shall utterly destroy death for ever."

Rev. xxi. 4, " And there shall be no more death." Tears are wont to be poured out on occasions of mortality. Thus :

Jer. xxxi. 15,

"A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping,

Rachel weeping for her children,

Refused to be comforted for her children,

Because they were not."

Jer. xxii. 10,

"Weep ye not for the dead, neither bemoan him,

But weep sore for him that goeth away,

For he shall return no more, nor see his native country."

Tears are sometimes shed for national calamities.

Thus :

Lam. i. 2,

"She weepeth sore in the night,

And her tears are on her cheeks."

Num. xiv. 1,

"And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried, And the people wept that night."

Tears are sometimes the offspring of painful suspense and anxiety. Thus Cicero, Ep. b. 14, ep. 3. Accepi ab Aristocrato tres epistolas, quas ego lacrymis prope delevi. Conficior enim morore, mea Te

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rentia."

And Ovid has

"Est quædam flere voluptas, Expletur lacrymis egeriturque dolor."

And David, Ps. xlii. 4,

"My tears have been my meat day and night,

While they continually say to me, where is thy God."

And Ps. lxxx. 5,

"Thou feedest them with the bread of tears,

And givest them tears to drink in great abundance."

Ps. cii. 9,

"For I have eaten ashes like bread,

And mingled my drink with weeping."

And Hagar's pitiable case is thus described in Gen. xxi. 15, 16, "And the water was spent in the bottle, and she cast the child under one of the shrubs. And she went and sat her down over against him a good way off, as it were a bow-shot; for she said, Let me not see the death of the child. And she sat over against him, and lifted up her voice, and wept."

A Greek poet in the Anthology thus bewails his condition :

Δακρυχέων γενόμην, και δακρυσας ἀποθνησκω, κ. τ. λο
may be thus rendered in Latin :

which

"Lacrymans sum natus et lacrymans morior,
In lacrymis universam comperi vitam.

O genus hominum lacrymosum, debile, miserabile,
Tractum in terra solutumque."

Tears are often the symbol of divine judgments, as they are sometimes also of human oppressions. Eccl. iv. 1; Acts xx. 19; Jer. xiv. 17.

They are sometimes the fruit of repentance and contrition. See Heb. xii. 17; Matt. xxvi. 75.

And commonly the result of natural affection, deploring a beloved object, of which the examples are too obvious and numerous to cite. There is a singular inscription in Aringhi's Roma Subterr. cap. 20, "Tempore Adriani imperatoris, Marius adolescens dux militum qui satis vixit, dum vitam pro Christo cum sanguine consumsit, in pace tandem quievit. Bene merentes cum lacrymis et metu posuerunt."

Whatever the causes of tears to the righteous, all these shall be abolished, which is what is meant by "God's wiping away all tears from their eyes." For death, oppression, calamity, repentance, shall have no place in the heavenly region. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy.

TEETH are frequently used in Scripture as the symbols of cruelty, or of a devouring enemy.

Thus in Prov. xxx. 14, "There is a generation whose teeth are as swords, and their jaw teeth as

knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, and the needy from among men."

So David, to express the cruelty of tyrants, Ps. Ivi. 6, prays to God," to break out the great teeth of the young lions."

So God, threatening the Israelites for rebellion. Deut. xxxii. 24, says, "I will also send the teeth of

beasts upon them."

And David, Ps. lvii. 4, compares the teeth of wick

ed men to spears and arrows.

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My soul," saith he,

"is among lions, and I lie even among them that are set on fire, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword."

See Ps. iii. 8, lviii. 7, cxxiv, 6; Job xxix. 17.

There are various places of the New Testament in which future punishment is set forth under the symbol of gnashing of teeth, viz. Matt. viii. 12, xiii. 42, xxv. 30; Luke xiii. 28. From these it would appear to denote despair, on account of the hopelessness of their condition.

So Virgil, Æn. 6, v. 557, " Hinc exaudiri gemitus et sæva sonare," &c.

"From hence are heard the groans of ghosts, the pains
Of sounding lashes, and of dragging chains.
The Trojan stood astonish'd at their cries,

And ask'd his guide, from whence those yells arise,
And what the crimes, and what the tortures were,
And loud laments that rent the liquid air."

DRYDEN.

The phrase may also denote envy, on account of the happiness of others. Ps. cxii. 10,

"The wicked shall see it, and be grieved,
He shall gnash with his teeth and melt away;
The desire of the wicked shall perish."

Horace uses the expression, l. 4, ode 3,

"Et jam dente minus mordeor invido."

It is also a mark of malignity and fury. Thus Acts vii. 54," they gnashed on Stephen with their teeth." See also Job xvi. 9. Hesiod in his shield of Hercules, v. 403, applies it to the fury of wild beasts:

"As two grim lions for a roebuck slain,

Wroth in contention rush, and them betwixt
The sound of roaring and of clashing teeth

Ariseth."

ELTON.

It may include horror and murmuring on learning their doom. See Matt. xxv. 41. So Homer, II. xxiii. v. 101,

"Like a thin smoke he sees the spirit fly,

And hears a feeble, lamentable cry."

See Rev. xvi. 9, 10, 11.

TEMPLE. Temple and tabernacle, or tent, are opposite.

A tabernacle or tent denotes an unsettled state, from the use of tents in places where men travel and have no settled habitations.

And thus, whilst Israel was unsettled in the desart, and even in Canaan, till the utmost of what was promised to Abraham for their sakes was fulfilled, God had a moveable tabernacle, and therefore said of himself that he also walked in a tent and in a tabernacle ; 2 Sam. vii. 6.

But, on the contrary, when the Israelites were fully settled in the promised land, God had then, to shew his fixed abode with them, a standing house, palace, or temple built for him; and, to make up the notion of dwelling or habitation complete, there were to be all things suitable to a house belonging to it.