the uninformed mind on the appearances of things; There is nothing made a more common subject of discourse than nature and its laws, and yet few agree in their notions about these words.'-CHEYNE. The difference of opinion among men, on the most important questions of human life, is a sufficient evidence that the mind of man is very easily led astray in matters of opinion; 'No, cousin, (said Henry IV. when charged by the Duke of Bouillon with having changed his religion) I have changed no religion, but an opinion. HOWEL. Whatever difference of opinion there may be among Christians, there is but one sentiment of love and good-will among those who follow the example of Christ, rather than their own passions; There are never great numbers in any nation who can raise a pleasing discourse from their own stock of sentiments and images.'-JOHNSON. The notions of a Deity are so imperfect among savages in general, that they seem to amount to little more than an indistinct idea of some superiour invisible agent; 'Being we are at this time to speak of the proper notion of the church, therefore I shall not look upon it as any more than the sons of men.'-PEARSON. DEITY, DIVINITY. Deity, from Deus a God, signifies a divine person. Back on herself, and startles at destruction? CELESTIAL, HEAVENLY. whence it has been employed to designate the action of doing suitable homage to the object which has worth, and, by a just distinction, of paying homage to our Maker by religious rites. Adoration, strictly speaking, is the service of the heart towards a Superlour Being, in which we ac knowledge our dependence and obedience, by petition and thanksgiving: worship consists in the outward form of showing reverence to some supposed superiour being. Adoration can with propriety be paid only to the one true God; Menander says, that "God, the Lord and Father of all things, is alone worthy of our humble adoration, being at once the maker and giver of all blessings."'-CUMBERLAND. But worship is offered by heathens to stocks and stones; By reason, man a Godhead can discern, But how he should be worship'd cannot learn. DRYDEN. We may adore our Maker at all times and in all places, whenever the heart is lifted up towards him; ing to certain rules; 'Solemn and serviceable worship but we worship him only at stated times, and accordwe name, for distinction sake,whatsoever belongeth to the church or publick society of God, by way of external adoration.'-HOOKER. Outward signs are but secondary in the act of adoration; and in divine worship there is often nothing existing but the outward form. We seldom adore without worshipping; but we too frequently worship without adoring. TO ADORE, REVERENCE, VENERATE, Adoration has been before considered only in relation to our Maker; it is here employed in an improper and extended application to express, in the strongest possible manner, the devotion of the mind towards sensible objects: Reverence, in Latin reverentia, reverence or awe, implies to show reverence, from revereor, to stand in awe of: Venerate, in Latin vene beauty, signifying to hold in very high esteem for its superiour qualities: revere is another form of the same verb. Celestial and heavenly derive their difference in sig-ratus, participle of veneror, probably from venere nification from their different origin: they both literally imply belonging to heaven; but the former, from the Latin cœlestum, signifies belonging to the heaven of heathens; the latter, which has its origin among beReverence is equally engendered by the contemplalievers in the true God, has acquired a superiour sense, tion of superiority in a being, whether of the Supreme in regard to heaven as the habitation of the Almighty. Being, as our Creator, or any earthly being as our This distinction is pretty faithfully observed in their parent. It differs, however, from adoration, in as application: celestial is applied mostly in the natural much as it has a mixture of fear arising from the consense of the heavens; heavenly is employed more com-sciousness of weakness and dependence, or of obligamonly in a spiritual sense. Hence we speak of the celestial globe as distinguished from the terrestrial, of the celestial bodies, of Olympus as the celestial abode of Jupiter, of the celestial deities; Twice warm'd by the celestial messenger, Thus having said, the hero bound his brows Then Earth, the mother of the heavenly race. But there are cases in which heavenly cannot so pro- But now he seiz'd Briseis' heav'nly charms, zerve. TO ADORE, WORSHIP. Adore, in French adorer, Latin adoro, or ad and ero, signifies literally to pray to. Worship, in Saxon weorthscype, is contracted from worthship, implying either the object that is worth, or the worth itself; tion for favours received; The fear acceptable to God, is a filial fear, an awful reverence of the Divine Nature, proceeding from a just esteem for his perfec tions, which produces in us an inclination to his service, and an unwillingness to offend him.'-ROGERS. To revere and venerate are applied only to human beings, and that not so much from the relation we stand in to them, as from their characters and endow ments; on which account these two latter terms are applicable to inanimate as well as animate objects. Adoration in this case, as in the former, essentially requires no external form of expression; it is best expressed by the devotion of the individual to the service of him whom he adores; "There is no end of his greatness." The most exalted creature he has made is only capable of adoring it; none but himself can comprehend it.'-ADDISON. Reverencing our Maker is altogether an inward feeling; but reverencing our parents includes in it an outward expression of our sentiments by our deportment towards them; The war protracted, and the siege delay'd, In pious reverence to the gods excell'd.--DRYDEN. Revering and venerating are confined to the breast of the individual, but they may sometimes display them selves in suitable acts of homage. Good princes are frequently adored by their subjects: it is a part of the Christian character to reverence our spiritual pastors and masters, as well as all temporal authorities; 'It seems to be remarkable that death increases our veneration for the good, and extenuates our hatred of the bad.'-JOHNSON. We ought to venerate all truly good men while living, and to revers their memories when they are dead: Offering, from offer, and oblation, from oblatio and oblatus or oflatus, come both from offero (v. To offer); the former is however a term of much more general and familiar use than the latter. Offerings are both moral and religious; oblation, in the proper sense, is religious only; the money which is put into the sacramental plate is an offering; the consecrated bread and wine at the sacrament is an oblation. The offering, in a religious sense, is whatever one offers as a gift by way of reverence to a superiour; They are polluted offerings, more abhorr'd SHAKSPEARE. invoked the Dire to bring down every evil on the heads of their enemies. They had different formulas of speech for different occasions, as to an enemy on his departure; Abeas nunquam rediturus.' Mela informs us that the Abrantes, a people of Africa, used to salute the rising and setting sun after this manner. The execration is always the informal expression of the most violent personal anger; 'I have seen in Bedlam a man that has held up his face in a posture of adoration towards heaven to utter execrations and blasphemies.'-STEELE. TEMPLE, CHURCH. The These words designate an edifice destined for the exercise of religion, but with collateral ideas, which sufficiently distinguish them from each other. templum of the Latin signified originally an open elevated spot marked out by the augurs with their lituus, or sacred wand, whence they could best survey the heavens on all sides; the idea, therefore, of spacious, open, and elevated, enters into the meaning of this word in the same manner as it does in the Hebrew word, derived from, which in the Arabick signifies great and lofty. The Greek vads, from valw The oblation is the offering which is accompanied to inhabit, signifies a dwelling-place, and by distinction with some particular ceremony; Many conceive in the dwelling-place of the Almighty, in which sense the the oblation of Jephtha's daughter, not a natural but Hebrew word is also taken to denote the high and a civil kind of death.'-BROWN. The wise men made holy place where Jehovah peculiarly dwelleth, otheran offering to our Saviour; but not properly an obla-wise called the holy heavens, Jehovah's dwelling or tion; the Jewish sacrifices, as in general all religious resting-place; whence St. Paul calls our bodies the sacrifices, were in the proper sense oblations. The term oblation, in a figurative sense, may be as generally applied as offering ; ་ Ye mighty princes, your oblations bring, MALEDICTION, CURSE, IMPRECATION, EX- Malediction, from malè and dico, signifies a saying ill, that is, declaring an evil wish against a person: curse, in Saxon kursian, comes in all probability from the Greek kupów, to sanction or ratify, signifying a bad wish declared upon oath, or in a solemn manner; imprecation, from im and preco, signifies a praying down evil upon a person: execration, from the Latin execror, that is, sacris excludere, signifies the same as to excommunicate, with every form of solemn imprecation: anathema, in Greek ává0cpa, signifies a setting out, that is, a putting out of a religious community by way of penance. The malediction is the most indefinite and general term, signifying simply the declaration of evil: curse is a solemn denunciation of evil: the former is employed mostly by men; the latter by God or man: the rest are species of the curse pronounced only by man. The malediction is caused by simple anger: the curse is occasioned by some grievous offence: men, in the heat of their passions, will utter maledictions against any object that offends them; With many praises of his good play, and many maledictions on the power of chance, he took up the cards and threw them in the fire.'-MACKENZIE. God pronounced a curse upon Adam, and all his posterity, after the fall; But know, that ere your promis'd walls you build, My curses shall severely be fulfill'd.-DRYDEN. The curse differs in the degree of evil pronounced or wished; the imprecation and execration always imply some positive great evil, and, in fact, as much evil as can be conceived by man in his anger; 'Thus either host their imprecations join'd.'-POPE. The anathema respects the evil which is pronounced according to the canon law, by which a man is not only put out of the church, but held up as an object of offence. The malediction is altogether an unallowed expression of private resentment; the curse was admitted, in some cases, according to the Mosaic law; and that, as well as the anathema, at one time formed a part of the ecclesiastical discipline of the Christian church; The bare anathemas of the church fall like so many bruta fulmina upon the obstinate and schismatical.'-SOUTH. The imprecation formed a part of the heathenish ceremony of religion, whereby they temples of God when the spirit of God dwelleth in us. The Roman poets used the word templum in a similar sense; Cœli tonitralia templa.-LUCRET. (Lib. L.) ENNIUS. The word temple, therefore, strictly signifies a spacious TO DEDICATE, DEVOTE, CONSECRATE, Dedicate, in Latin dedicatus, participle from de and dico, signifies to set apart by a promise; devote, in Latin devotus, participle from devoveo, signifies to vow for an express purpose; consecrate, in Latin consecratus, from consecro or con and sacro, signifies to make sacred by a special act; hallow from holy, or the German heilig, signifies to make holy. There is something more positive in the act of dedicating than in that of devoting; but less so than in that of consecrating. To dedicate and devote may be employed in both temporal and spiritual matters; to consecrate and hallow only in the spiritual sense: we may dedicate or devote any thing that is at our disposal to the service Or we devote our time to the benefit of our friends, or the relief of the poor; 'Gilbert West settled himself in a very pleasant house at Wickham in Kent, where he devoted himself to piety.'-JOHNSON. We may dedicate or devote ourselves to an object; but the former always implies a solemn setting apart, springing from a sense of duty; the latter an entire application of one's self from zeal and affection; in this manuer he who dedicates himself to God abstracts himself from every object which is not immediately connected with the service of God; he who devotes himself to the ministry pursues it as the first object of his attention and regard: such a dedication of ourself is hardly consistent with our other duties as members of society; but a devotion of one's powers, one's time, and one's knowledge to the spread of religion among men is one of the most honourable and sacred kinds of devotion. To consecrate is a species of formal dedication by virtue of a religious observance; it is applicable mostly to places and things connected with religious works; "The greatest conqueror in this holy nation did not only compose the words of his divine odes, but generally set them to musick himself; after which his works, though they were consecrated to the tabernacle, became the national entertainment.'-ADDISON. Hallow is a species of informal consecration applied to the same objects: the church is consecrated; particular days are hallowed; Without the walls a ruin'd temple stands, FORM, CEREMONY, RITE, OBSERVANCE. speech to be necessary among all men throughout the world doth not thereby import that all men must necessarily speak one language; even so the necessity of polity and regimen in all churches may be held without holding any one certain form to be necessary in them all.'-HOOKER. The ceremony may be said either of an individual or a community; the rite is perly of the individual either in publick or private. said only of a community; the observance, more proThe ceremony of kneeling during the time of prayer is the most becoming posture for a suppliant, whether in publick or private; Bring her up to the high altar, that she may The sacred ceremonies there partake.-SPENSER. The discipline of a Christian church consists in its rites, to which every member, either as a layman or a priest, is obliged to conform; Live thou to mourn thy love's unhappy fate, To bear my mangled body from the foe, Or buy it back, and fun'ral rites bestow.-DRYDEN. Publick worship is an observance which no Christian thinks himself at liberty to neglect; 'Incorporated minds will always feel some inclination towards exte riour acts and ritual observances.'--JOHNSON. It betrays either gross ignorance or wilful impertinence, in the man who sets at nought any of the established forms of society, particularly in religious matters; 'You may discover tribes of men without policy, or laws, or cities, or any of the arts of life; but no where will you find them without some form of religion.'-BLAIR. When ceremonies are too numerous, they destroy the ease of social intercourse; but the absence of ceremony destroys all decency; 'Not to use ceremonies at all, is to teach others not to use them again, and so diminish respect to himself.'-BACON. In publick worship the excess of ceremony is apt to extinguish the warmth and spirit of devotion; but the want of ceremony depríves it of all solemnity. SACRAMENT. Form in this sense respects the form or manner of LORD'S SUPPER, EUCHARIST, COMMUNION, the action; ceremony, in Latin ceremonia, is supposed to signify the rites of Ceres; rite, in Latin ritus, is probably changed from ratus, signifying a custom that is esteemed; observance signifies the thing observed. The Lord's supper is a term of familiar and general use among Christians, as designating in literal terms the supper of our Lord; that is, either the last solemn All these terms are employed with regard to particu-supper which he took with his disciples previous to his lar modes of action in civil society. Form is here the crucifixion, or the commemoration of that event which most general in its sense and application; ceremony, conformably to his commands has been observed by rite, and observance are particular kinds of form, the professors of Christianity; "To the worthy partisuited to particular occasions. Form, in its distinct cipation of the Lord's supper, there is indispensably application, respects all modes of acting and speaking, required a suitable preparation.'-SOUTH. Eucharist that are adopted by society at large, in every transac- is a term of peculiar use among the Roman Catholicks, tion of life; ceremony respects those forms of outward from the Greek luxapw to give thanks, because perbehaviour which are made the expressions of respect sonal adoration, by way of returning thanks, constiand deference; rite and observance are applied to tutes in their estimation the chief part of the cere national ceremonies in matters of religion. A certain mony; This ceremony of feasting belongs most proform is requisite for the sake of order, method, and perly both to marriage and to the eucharist, as both of decorum, in every social matter, whether in affairs of them have the nature of a covenant.'-SOUTH. As state, in a court of law, in a place of worship, or in the the social affections are kept alive mostly by the comprivate intercourse of friends. So long as distinctions mon participation of meals, so is brotherly love, the are admitted in society, and men are agreed to express essence of Christian fellowship, cherished and warmed their sentiments of regard and respect to each other, it in the highest degree by the common participation in will be necessary to preserve the ceremonies of polite- this holy festival: hence, by distinction, it has been ness which have been established. Every country has denominated the communion; 'One woman he could adopted certain rites founded upon its peculiar religious not bring to the communion, and when he reproved faith, and prescribed certain observances by which or exhorted her, she only answered that she was no individuals could make a publick profession of their scholar.'-JOHNSON. As the vows which are made faith. Administering oaths by the magistrate is a ne- at the altar of our Lord are the most solemn which a cessary form in law; A long table and a square table, Christian can make, comprehending in them the entire or seat about the walls, seem things of form, but are devotion of himself to Christ, the general term sacrathings of substance; for at a long table, a few at the ment, signifying an oath, has been employed by way upper end, in effect, sway all the business; but in the of emphasis for this ordinance; I could not have the other form, there is more use of the counsellors' opi- consent of the physicians to go to church yesterday; nions that sit lower.'-BACON. Kissing the king's hand I therefore received the holy sacrament at home.”is a ceremony practised at court; JOHNSON. The Roman Catholicks have employed the same term to six other ordinances; but the Pro testants, who attach a similar degree of sacredness to no other than baptism, annex this appellation only to And what have kings that privates have not too, Baptism is one rite of initiation into the Christian As respects religion, the form is the established practice, comprehending the rite, ceremony, and observance, but the word is mostly applied to that which is external, and suited for a community; He who affirmeth these two. MARRIAGE, WEDDING, NUPTIALS. Marriage, from to marry, denotes the act of marry ing; wedding and nuptials denote the ceremony of being married. As marry, in French marrier, comes from the Latin marito to be joined to a male; hence marriage comprehends the act of choosing and being legally bound to a man or a woman: wedding, from wed, and the Teutonick wetten, to promise or betroth, implies the ceremony of marrying, inasmuch as it is binding upon the parties. Nuptials comes from the Latin nubo to veil, because the Roman ladies were veiled at the time of marriage: hence the word has been put for the whole ceremony itself. Marriage is a general term, which conveys no collateral meaning. Marriage is an institution which, by those who have been blessed with the light of Divine revelation, has always been considered as sacred; That pluck'd my nerves, those tender strings of life, Which, pluck'd a little more, will toll the bell That calls my few friends to my funeral.—YOUNG. We speak of the obsequies as the tribute of respect which can be paid to the person of one who was high in station or publick esteem; His body shall be royally interr'd. Be the chief mourner at his obsequies.-DRYDEN. The funeral, by its frequency, becomes so familiar an object that it passes by unheeded; the obsequies which are performed over the remains of the great, attract our notice from the pomp and grandeur with which they are conducted. The funeral is performed for one immediately after his decease; but the obsequies may be performed at any period afterward, and in this sense is not confined alone to the great; Some in the flow'r-strewn grave the corpse have lay'd, And annual obsequies around it paid.—JENYNS. O fatal maid! thy marriage is endow'd With Phrygian, Latian, and Rutulian blood. DRYDEN. Wedding has always a reference to the ceremony; with some persons, particularly among the lower orders of society, the day of their wedding is converted into a day of riot and intemperance; Ask any one how he has been employed to-day: he will tell you, perhaps, I have been at the ceremony of taking the manly robe this friend invited me to a wedding; that deBURIAL, INTERMENT, SEPULTURE. sired me to attend the hearing of his cause.'-MELMOTH (Letters of Pliny). Nuptials may either be Burial, from bury, in Saxon birian, birigan, Gerused in a general or particular import; among the man bergen, signifies, in the original sense, to conceal. Roman Catholicks in England it is a practice for them Interment, from inter, compounded of in and terra, to have their nuptials solemnized by a priest of their signifies the putting into the ground. Sepulture, in own persuasion as well as by the Protestant clergy-participle of sepelio to bury, comes from sepes 3 French sepulture, Latin sepultura, from sepultus, man; Fir'd with disdain for Turnus dispossess'd, MARRIAGE, MATRIMONY, WEDLOCK. Marriage (v. Marriage) is oftener an act than a state; matrimony and wedlock both describe states. Marriage is taken in the sense of an act, when we speak of the laws of marriage, the day of one's marriage, the congratulations upon one's marriage, a happy or unhappy marriage, &c.; Marriage is rewarded with some honourable distinctions which celibacy is forbidden to usurp.'-JOHNSON. It is taken in the sense of a state, when we speak of the pleasures or pains of marriage; but in this latter case, matrimony, which signifies a married life abstractedly from all agents or acting persons, is preferable; so likewise, to think of matrimony, and to enter into the holy state of matrimony, are expressions founded upon the signification of the term. As matrimony is derived from mater a mother, because married women are in general mothers, it has particular reference to the domestick state of the two parties; broils are but too frequently the fruits of matrimony, yet there are few cases in which they might not be obviated by the good sense of those who are engaged in them. Hasty marriages cannot be expected to produce happiness; young people who are eager for matrimony before they are fully aware of its consequences will purchase their experience at the expense of their peace; As love generally produces matrimony, so it often happens that matrimony produces love.'-SPECTATOR. Wedlock is the old English word for matrimony, and is in consequence admitted in law, when one speaks of children born in wedlock; agreeably to its derivation it has a reference to the bond of union which follows the marriage: hence one speaks of living happily in a state of wedlock, of being joined in holy wedlock; The men who would make good husbands, if they visit publick places, are frighted at wedlock and resolve to live single.'-JOHNSON. FUNERAL, OBSEQUIES. Funeral, in Latin funus, is derived from funis a cord, because lighted cords, or torches, were carried before the bodies which were interred by night; the funeral, therefore, denotes the ordinary solemnity which attends the consignment of a body to the grave. Obsequies, in Latin exequie, are both derived from sequor, which, in its compound sense, significs to perform or execute; they comprehend, therefore, funerals attended with more than ordinary solemnity. We speak of the funeral as the last sad office which we perform for a friend; it is accompanied by nothing but by mourning and sorrow; hedge, signifying an enclosure, and probably likewise from the Hebrew to put to rest, or in a state of privacy. Under burial is comprehended simply the purpose of the action; under interment and sepulture, the manner as well as the motive of the action. We bury in order to conceal; Among our Saxon ancestors, the dead bodies of such as were slain in the field were not laid in graves; but lying upon the ground were covered with turves or clods of earth, and the more in reputation the persons had been, the greater and higher were the turves raised over their bodies. This some used to call biriging, some beorging of the dead; all being one thing though differently pronounced, and from whence we yet retain our speech of burying the dead, that is, hiding the dead.'-VERSTEGAN Interment and sepulture are accompanied with religious ceremonies. *Bury is confined to no object or place; we burg whatever we deposite in the earth, and wherever we please; When he lies along After your way his tale pronounc'd, shall bury His reasons with his body.-SHAKSPEARE. But interment and sepulture respect only the bodies Burial requires that the object be concealed under of the deceased when deposited in a sacred place. ground; interment may be used for depositing in vaults. Self-murderers are buried in the highways; Christians in general are buried in the church-yard; If you have kindness left, there see me laid; To bury decently the injur'd maid Is all the favour.-WALLER. The kings of England were formerly interred in Westminster Abbey; His body shall be royally interr'd, Ah! leave me not for Grecian dogs to tear, * Vide Trussler: "To bury, inter." Interment and sepulture never depart from their religious import; bury is used figuratively for other objects and purposes. A man is said to bury himself alive who shuts himself out from the world; he is said to bury the talent of which he makes no use, or to bury in oblivion what he does not wish to call to mind; This is the way to make the city flat The evil that men do lives after them, BEATIFICATION, CANONIZATION. These are two acts emanating from the pontifical authority, by which the Pope declares a person, whose life has been exemplary and accompanied with miracles, as entitled to enjoy eternal happiness after his death, and determines in consequence the sort of worship which should be paid to him. In the act of beatification the Pope pronounces only as a private person, and uses his own authority only in granting to certain persons, or to a religious order, the privilege of paying a particular worship to a beatified object. In the act of canonization, the Pope speaks as a judge after a judicial examination on the state, and decides the sort of worship which ought to be paid by the whole church. FEAST, FESTIVAL, HOLIDAY. Feast, in Latin festum, or festus, changed most probably from fesie, or ferie, which, in all probability, comes from the Greek icpos, sacred, because these days were kept sacred or vacant from all secular labour: festival and holiday, as the words themselves denote, have precisely the same meaning in their original sense, with this difference, that the former derives its origin from heathenish superstition, the latter owes its rise to the establishment of Christianity in its reformed state. by idleness; 'Many worthy persons urged how great the harmony was between the holidays and their attributes (if I may call thein so), and what a confusion would follow if Michaelmas-day, for instance, was not to be celebrated when stubble geese are in their highest perfection.'-WALPOLE. A festival is kept by mirth and festivity: some feasts are festivals, as in the case of the carnival at Rome; some festivals are holidays, as in the case of weddings and publick thanksgivings. CLERGYMAN, PARSON, PRIEST, MINISTER. Clergyman, altered from clerk, clericus, signified any one holding a regular office, and by distinction one who held the holy office; parson is either changed from person, that is, by distinction the person who spiritually presides over a parish, or contracted from parochianus; priest, in German, &c. priester, is contracted from presbyter, in Greek mocaẞUTEpos, signifying an elder who holds the sacerdotal office; minister, in Latin minister, a servant, from minus, less or inferior, signifies literally one who performs a subordinate office, and has been extended in its meaning, to signify generally one who officiates or performs an office. The word clergyman applies to such as are regularly bred according to the forms of the national religion, and applies to none else. In this sense we speak of the English, the French, and Scotch clergy, without distinction; 'By a clergyman I mean one in holy orders.'STEELE. To the time of Edward III. it is probable that the French and English languages subsisted together throughout the kingdom; the higher orders, both of the clergy and laity, speaking almost universally French; the lower retaining the use of their native tongue.-TYRWHITT. A parson is a species of clergyman, who ranks the highest in the three orders of inferiour clergy; that is, parson, vicar, and curate; the parson being a technical term for the rector, or him who holds the living: in its technical sense it has now acquired a definite use; but in general conversation it is become almost a nickname. The word clergyman is always substituted for parson in polite society. When priest respects the Christian religion it is a species of clergyman, that is, one who is ordained to officiate at the altar in distinction from the deacon, who is only an assistant to the priest. But the term priest has likewise an extended ineaning in reference to such as hold the sacerdotal character in any form of religion, as the priests of the Jews, or those of the Greeks, Romans, Indians, and the like; Call a man a priest, or parson, and you set him in some men's esteem ten degrees below his own servant.'-SOUTH. A minister is one who actually or habitually officiates. Clergymen are therefore not always strictly ministers; nor are all ministers clergymen. If a clergyman delegates his functions altogether he is not a minister; Lor is he who presides over a dissenting congregation a clergy A feast, in the Christian sense of the word, is applied to every day, except Sundays, which are regarded as sacred, and observed with particular solemnity; a holyday, or, according to its modern orthography, a holiday, is simply a day on which the ordinary business is suspended: among the Roman Catholicks, there are many days which are kept holy, and consequently by them denominated feasts, which in the English reformed church are only observed as holidays, or days of exemption from publick business; of this description are the Saints' days, on which the publick offices are shut on the other hand, Christmas, Easter, and Whit-man. In the former case, however, it would be invidious suntide, are regarded in both churches more as feasts than as holidays. Feast, as a technical term, is applied only to certain specified holidays; First, I provide myself a nimble thing, A holiday is an indefinite term, it may be employed It happen'd on a summer's holiday, That to the green wood shade he took his way. DRYDEN. A festival has always either a sacred or a serious object; In so enlightened an age as the present, I shall perhaps be ridiculed if I hint, as my opinion, that the observation of certain festivals is something more than a mere political institution.'-WALPOLE. A feast is kept by religious worship; a holiday is kept Girard: "Beatification, canonization." to deprive the clergyman of the name of minister of With leave and honour enter our abodes, BISHOPRICK, DIOCESS. Bishoprick, compounded of bishop and rick or reich empire, signifies the empire or government of a bishop: Diocess, in Greek diolxnois, compounded of dia and bekéw, signifies an administration throughout. Both these words describe the extent of an episcopal jurisdiction; the first with relation to the person who officiates, the second with relation to the charge: There may, therefore, be a bishoprick, either where there are many diocesses or no diocess; but according to the import of the term, there is properly no diocess where there is no bishoprick. When the jurisdiction is merely titular, as in countries where the Catholick religion is not recognised, it is a bishoprick, but not a diocess. On the other hand, the bishoprick of Rome or that of an archbishop comprehends all the diocesses of the subordinate bishops. Hence it arises that when we speak of the ecclesiastical distribution of a country, we term the divisions bishopricks; but when we speak |