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expression resembling it, in Ps. xxxvi. 6, " Thy righteousness is like the great mountains."

Brass is also the symbol of strength. See Ps. cvii.

16. Isa. lxv. 4.

Mich. iv. 13,

"Thine horn will I make iron,

And thine hoofs will I make brass ;"

i. e. to overcome all enemies, and tread them down, as an ox the corn in threshing, whose hoofs are shod with iron or brass, Deut. xxv. 4, Hosea x. 11.

So in Jer. i. 18, and ch. xv. 20, brazen walls signify a strong and lasting adversary or opposer.

Deut. xxviii. 23, "The heaven over thy head shall be brass," &c.; i. e. rain shall be withheld, and the earth shall be barren.

Isa. xlv. 2, "I will break in pieces the gates of brass," &c.; i. e. the brazen gates of the wall of Babylon, of which there were a hundred. See Herod. b. i. 179, 180.

Fine brass or aurichalcum, Rev. i. 15—ii. 18. See Parkhurst's Greek Lex. on xaλxoλißavov. BREAST. Breast is, by the Oneirocritics, explained of prudence. So the Indian, c. 76, and the Persian and the Egyptian interpreters, make it the symbol of long life, riches, and victory, which are the effects and marks of wisdom.

The Greeks seem to have had the notion, that the breast was the seat of wisdom; for govor wise, with them came from gives, which are the præcordia, the parts of the breast about the heart; whence Juvenal, speaking of a dull youth, says, Sat. 7, v. 160, " quod læva in parte mamillæ nil salit Arcadico Juveni."

Nahum ii. 7,

E

"And her handmaids are carried away as with the voice of doves,

Smiting (or tabering) upon their breasts."

As the tabret is beaten with the fingers, and those fingers are applied to a skin stretched over an hollow hoop, the description gives great life to the words of the prophet Nahum, who compares women beating on their breasts, in deep anguish, to their playing on a tabret. (Harmer 1, 482.)

Levit. vii. 30, "That the breast may be waved for a wave-offering before Jehovah."

The offerer's waving of the breast of the sacrifice to God, was typically giving up to him the heart and affections; and this being afterwards allotted to the priest, reminded the believer that He only whom the priest represented, did ever, in his own person, make an entire and continual surrender of his heart and will to God. See Parkhurst on here.

BREASTPLATE.

Breastplates are defensive arms, denoting and giving courage and undauntedness to those that use them; and, by reflection, striking terror and amazement into those they are employed against. Accordingly, to dream of finding or putting on a breastplate, is, with the Oneirocritics, c. 156, the symbol of joy for the destruction of enemies, &c.; 249, the symbol of riches to be obtained by valour.

The military cuirass or breastplate was made with rows or scales of metal placed on each other, for the better defence of the warrior. Homer has described one of these breastplates, as used by the Greeks at the Trojan war. Il. 11, 1. 24, 25.

"Her rows of azure steel the work infolds

Twice ten of tin, and twelve of ductile gold."

POPE.

In another place, Il. 13, 1. 439, he calls a breastplate a vest of brass; and Virgil thus describes the armour of Turnus, Æn. 11, 1. 487.

"Clad in a cuirass rough with brazen scales."

The breastplate of the Jewish high-priest is particularly described in Lev. xxviii. 15, xxxix. 8, &c. It contained the Urim and Thummim, Lights and Perfections; for an explanation of which, see Park. Heb. Lex. on ar.

Isaiah beautifully characterises the Redeemer of Israel, by saying (ch. lix. 17.),

"And he put on righteousness as a breastplate,

And the helmet of salvation was on his head,

And he put on the garments of vengeance for his clothing, And he clad himself with zeal, as with a mantle."

The language of Isaiah is in some measure copied by Paul in Eph. vi. 14 and 17, where the same terms are figuratively employed to point out the spiritual armour of true believers.

In Thess. v. 8, the language is altered, from the breastplate of righteousness, to the breastplate of faith and love. On both of which passages see Chandler.

In Rev. ix. 9, the mystical locusts are said to have "breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron," which agrees very well with the condition of the natural locust, which has about its body a pretty hard shell, of the colour of iron: "Armavit natura cutem," says Claudian.

And in verse 17. of the same chapter, the horsemen are described as having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, or hyacinth, and brimstone, i. e. of red, blue, and yellow colours, denoting the terror of their ap

68 BREASTPLATE......BRIMSTONE......BUIDL.

pearance, when marching to war; probably referring to the Saracenic invasions and conquests in 713.

BRIMSTONE. The symbol of a perpetual torment and destruction.

Thus in Job xviii. 15, " Brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation;" i. e. his house or family shall be destroyed for ever, by an inextinguishable fire.

Brimstone, q. d. brenne stone, i. e. burning stone, was used by the heathen in their religious purifications. See Juvenal and Lucian, as quoted by Parkhurst on lov; and God made it an instrument of his vengeance on the heathen and other delinquents. See Ps. xi. 6; Deut. xxix. 23; and Jude ver. 7.

Isaiah, speaking of the enemies of the church, under the designation of Edom, and their destiny, ch. xxxiv. 9, says,

"And her torrents shall be turned into pitch,

And her dust into sulphur:

And her whole land shall become burning pitch."

And respecting Tophet, ch. xxx. 33, his language is,

For Tophet is ordained of old,

Even the same for the king is prepared:

He hath made it deep; he hath made it large;

A fiery pyre, and abundance of fuel,

And the breath of Jehovah, like a stream of brimstone, shall kindle it."

Rev. ix. 17. See under Breastplate.

See also Rev. xiv. 10, xx. 10, xxi. 8; in all which places there seems to be an allusion to the manner in which God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.

BUILD. In the Oneirocritics (Achmet's Coll. c. 145.), any kind of building implies settlement of a family, or acquisition of some new honour, kingdom,

or power, and its peaceful enjoyment according to the subject; and, by consequence, a formal change of

state.

And thus, in several places of Holy Scripture, the building of a city is in order to a quiet settlement.

The first that is said to have built a city is Cain, Gen. iv. 17. This undoubtedly he did to comfort himself, and thus to take off the odium of being a vagabond, which God had inflicted on him. So that the said city he designed to be a full settlement, and he therefore called it Enoch, which signifies Dedication, or the beginning of a settlement; a dedication requiring a quiet possession and enjoyment for some time, as in Deut. xx. 5. The manner of dedicating a house or city, was probably wont to be done with the solemnity of feasting, prayer, and singing of Psalms. See Neh. xii. 27; Ps. xxx. title.

The same may be said of the building of Babel; which was designed for a settlement, contrary to the command of God, as Josephus hints, who willed that mankind should then spread themselves by colonies. But, however, the building of that was pretended to be a settlement,-"Let us build us a city and tower, whose top may reach to heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered over the face of the whole earth." Gen. xi. 4.

But farther, that the building of a city is in order to a quiet settlement, is evident from the Psalmist,— is They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way, and found no city to dwell in," Ps. cvii. 4; and verse 7," He led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation," or settlement; mou

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