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their common and obvious acception. "Whatsoever shall come forth of the doors of my house, shall surely be the Lord's, and I will offer it up for a burnt-offering. Now whereas it is said, Erit Jehova, et offeram illud holocaustum, the word signifying both et and aut, it may be taken disjunctively; aut offeram, that is, it shall either be the Lord's by separation, or else, an holocaust by common oblation; even as our marginal translation advertiseth, and as Tremellius rendereth it, Erit inquam Jehova, aut offeram illud holocaustum. And, for the vulgar translation, it useth often et where aut must be presumed, as Exod. xxi.; Si quis percusserit patrem et matrem, that is, not both, but either. There being therefore two ways to dispose of her, either to separate her unto the Lord, or offer her as a sacrifice, it is of no necessity the latter should be necessary; and surely less derogatory unto the sacred text and history of the people of God must be the former.

CHAPTER XV.

Of the Picture of John the Baptist in a Camel's Skin.

THE picture of John the Baptist in a camel's skin is very questionable, and many I perceive have condemned it.

7 in a camel's skin, &c.] Ross, as usual, supports the opinion which Browne attacks. "It was fit the Baptist, who came to preach repentance for sin, should wear a garment of skins, which was the first clothes that Adam wore after he had sinned; for his fig-leaves were not proper, and this garment also showed both his poverty and humility. For as great men wear rich skins and costly furs, he was contented with a camel's skin. By this garment also he shows himself to be another Elijah (2 Kings i.), who did wear such a garment, and to be one of those of whom the apostle speaks, who went about in skins, of whom the world was not worthy. Neither was it unuseful in John's time, and before, to wear skins; for the prophets among the Jews, the philosophers among the Indians, and generally the Scythians did wear skins; hence by Claudian they are called pellita juventus. Great commanders also used to wear them; as Hercules the lion's skin, Acestes the bear's, Camilla the tiger's. John's garment, then, of camel's hair, was not, as some fondly conceit, a sackcloth or camblet, but a skin with the hair on it."

This is quaint and lively enough; but the most competent autho

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The ground or occasion of this description are the words of the Holy Scripture, especially of Matthew and Mark (for Luke and John are silent herein); by them it is delivered, "his garment was of camel's hair, and he had a leather girdle about his loins." Now here it seems the camel's hair is taken by painters for the skin or pelt with the hair upon it. But this exposition will not so well consist with the strict acception of the words; for Mark i., it is said, he was, évdeduμevos тpixas кaμýλov, and Matἐνδεδυμενος τρίχας thew iii., εἶχε τὸ ἔνδυμα ἀπὸ τριχῶν καμήλου, that is, as the vulgar translation, that of Beza, that of Sixtus Quintus, und Clement the Eighth, hath rendered it, vestimentum habebat è pilis camelinis; which is, as ours translateth it, a garment of camel's hair; that is, made of some texture of that hair, a coarse garment, a cilicious or sackcloth habit, suitable to the austerity of his life, the severity of his doctrine, repentance, and the place thereof, the wilderness,— his food and diet, locusts and wild honey. Agreeable unto the example of Elias,* who is said to be vir pilosus, that is, as Tremellius interprets, Veste villosâ cinctus, answerable unto the habit of the ancient prophets, according to that of Zachary: "In that day the prophets shall be ashamed, neither shall they wear a rough garment to deceive;"† and suitable to the cilicious and hairy vests of the strictest orders of friars, who derive the institution of their monastic life from the example of John and Elias.

As for the wearing of skins, where that is properly intended, the expression of the Scripture is plain; so is it said, Heb. xi., they wandered about ev aiyeios dépμaoir, that is, in goat's skins; and so it is said of our first parents, Gen. iii., That God made them xiruvas dépμatívove, vestes pelliceas, or coats of skins;" which though a natural habit unto all, before the invention of texture, was something more unto Adam, who had newly learned to die; for unto him a garment from the dead was but a dictate of death, and an habit of mortality.

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rities agree with our author in supposing John's garment to have been made of a coarse sort of camel's hair camblet, or stuff: and Harmer has given several instances of such an article being worn.

his food, &c.] See book vii. ch. ix.

Now if any man will say this habit of John was neither of camel's skin, nor any coarse texture of its hair, but rather some finer weave of camelot, grograin, or the like, inasmuch as these stuffs are supposed to be made of the hair of that animal, or because that Ælian affirmeth that camel's hair of Persia is as fine as Milesian wool, wherewith the great ones of that place were clothed; they have discovered an habit not only unsuitable unto his leathern cincture, and the coarseness of his life, but not consistent with the words of our Saviour, when reasoning with the people concerning John, he saith, "What went you out into the wilderness to see ? A man clothed in soft raiment ? Behold, they that wear soft raiment, are in king's houses."

CHAPTER XVI.

Of the Picture of St. Christopher.

THE picture of St. Christopher, that is, a man of a giantlike stature, bearing upon his shoulders our Saviour Christ, and with a staff in his hand, wading through the water, is known unto children, common over all Europe, not only as a sign untó houses, but is described in many churches,"

and stands Colossus-like in the entrance of Notre Dame in Paris.1

Now from hence common eyes conceive an history suitable unto this description, that he carried our Saviour in his minority over some river of water; which notwithstanding we cannot at all make out. For we read not thus much in any good author, nor of any remarkable Christopher, before the reign of Decius, who lived two hundred and fifty years after Christ. This man indeed, according unto history, suffered as a martyr in the second year of that emperor, and in the Roman calendar takes up the 21st of July.

9 is known unto children, &c.] This gigantic saint is not so general an acquaintance in our nurseries, &c. as he seems to have been in days of yore. An amusing account of one of the ecclesiastical figures of him, just as here described, may be found in the Gent.'s Mag. for Oct. 1803.

1 Notre Dame.] Also in the cathedral of Christ's Church, Canterbury.-Jeff.

The ground that begat or promoted this opinion, was first the fabulous adjections of succeeding ages unto the veritable acts of this martyr, who in the most probable accounts was remarkable for his staff, and a man of a goodly stature.

The second might be a mistake or misapprehension of the picture, most men conceiving that an history, which was contrived at first but as an emblem or symbolical fancy; as,from the annotations of Baronius upon the Roman martyrology, Lipellous, in the life of St. Christopher, hath observed in these words: Acta S. Christopheri à multis depravata inveniuntur: quod quidem non aliunde originem sumpsisse certum est, quàm quòd symbolicas figuras imperiti ad veritatem successu temporis transtulerint: itaque cuncta illa de Sancto Christophero pingi consueta, symbola potiùs quàm historiæ alicujus existimandum est esse expressam imaginem; that is, "the acts of St. Christopher are depraved by many: which surely began from no other ground than that in process of time unskilful men translated symbolical figures unto real verities and therefore what is usually described in the picture of St. Christopher, is rather to be received as an emblem, or symbolical description, than any real history." Now what. emblem this was, or what its signification, conjectures are many; Pierius hath set down one, that is, of the disciple of Christ; for he that will carry Christ upon his shoulders, must rely upon the staff of his direction, whereon if he firmeth himself he may be able to overcome the billows of resistance, and in the virtue of this staff, like that of Jacob, pass over the waters of Jordan. Or otherwise thus: he that will submit his shoulders unto Christ, shall by the concurrence of his power increase into the strength of a giant; and being supported by the staff of his Holy Spirit, shall not be overwhelmed by the waves of the world, but wade through all

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resistance.

Add also the mystical reasons of this portrait alleged by Vida and Xerisanus; and the recorded story of Christopher, that before his martyrdom he requested of God, that wherever his body were, the places should be freed from pestilence and mischiefs, from infection. And therefore his picture or portrait was usually placed in public ways, and at

*Lip. De Vitis Sanctorum.

the entrance of towns and churches, according to the received distich :2*

Christophorum videas, postea tutus eris.

CHAPTER XVII.

Of the Picture of St. George.

THE picture of St. George killing the dragon, and as most ancient draughts do run, with the daughter of a king standing by, is famous amongst Christians. And upon this description dependeth a solemn story, how by this achievement he redeemed a king's daughter: which is more especially believed by the English, whose protector he is; and in which form and history, according to his description in the English college at Rome, he is set forth in the icons or cuts of martyrs by Cevalerius, and all this according to the Historia Lombardica, or golden legend of Jacobus de Voragine. Now of what authority soever this piece be amongst us, it is I perceive received with different beliefs: for some believe the person and the story; some the person, but not the story; and others deny both.4

* Anton. Castellionæ Antiquitates Mediolanenses.

2 Add also the mystical, &c.] First added in 3rd edition. 3 and all this, &c.] First added in 2nd edition.

4 some believe the person, &c.] Dr. Pettingal published a dissertation to prove both the person and the story to be fabulous, and the device of the order to be merely emblematical: and Dr. Byron wrote an essay (in verse) to prove that St. Gregory the Great, and not St. George, was the guardian saint of England. Against these two, and other writers on the same side, Dr. S. Pegge drew up a paper which appeared in the 5th vol. of the Archæologia: vindicating the honor of the patron saint of these realms, and of that society; asserting that he was a Christian saint and martyr—George of Cappadocia ; and distinct from the Arian bishop George of Alexandria, with whom Dr. Reynolds had identified him. In this paper Dr. Pegge has not mentioned the present chapter, which in all probability only attracted his notice some years after.-In his (posthumous work called) Anonymiana, No. 54, he says, that "the substance of Pettingal's dissertation on the original of the equestrian figure of St. George (which the learned author supposes to be all emblematical) and of the Garter, may be found in Browne's Vulgar Errors."

Browne, however, it must be observed, is of the same opinion as Dr.

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