As it respects the unbloody propitiatory sacrifice of he Mass above-mentioned, little need be said to confute such a doctrine. Indeed it is owned in the Church of Rome, that there is no other foundation for the belief of it than an unwritten tradition. There is no hint in the Scriptures of Christ offering his body and his blood to his Father at his institution of the Eucharist. It is also a manifest contradiction of St. Paul's doctrine, who teaches, that without shedding of blood there is no remission; therefore there can be no remission of sins in the Mass. The sacrifice of Christ, according to the same Epistle, is not to be repeated. A second oblation, then, would be superfluous: consequently, the pretended true and proper sacrifice of the Mass must be superfluous and useless.

PROSELYTE. In its original sense the term πρоσŋλUTOs, signifies one who comes to another country or people, a stranger, a sojourner. In the Jewish sense, however, a proselyte is a convert from paganism to Judaism. (Matt. 23. 15; Acts 2. 11.)

Although the constitution of the Jewish polity and the laws of Moses allowed no other nations to participate in their sacred rites, yet they did not exclude from them such individuals of other nations as were willing to qualify themselves for conforming to them. Hence they admitted proselytes, who renounced the worship of idols, and joined in the religious services of the Jews; although they were not held in the same estimation as the Jews by birth, descent, and language, who were by way of eminence termed Hebrews of the Hebrews. During the time of Jesus Christ, the Jews, especially the Pharisees, greatly exerted themselves in making proselytes to their religion and sect.

Calmet, and some other learned men after him, have distinguished two kinds of proselytes, namely: (1,) Proselytes of the gate, who dwelt either in or out of the land of Israel, and worshipped the true God, observing the seven precepts of Noah, but without obliging themselves to circumcision or any other legal ceremony; and (2,) Proselytes of justice or of righteousness, who were converts to Judaism, and engaged themselves to receive circumcision as well as to observe the whole of the Mosaic law. There does not, however, appear to be any foundation in the Scriptures for such a distinction: nor can any with propriety be termed proselytes, except those who fully embraced the Jewish religion. The Scriptures mention only two classes of persons, viz.: the Israelites or Hebrews of the Hebrews above-mentioned, and the Gentile converts to Judaism, which last are called by the names of strangers and sojourners, or proselytes.

"According to my idea," says Bishop Tomline, "proselytes were those, and those only, who took upon themselves the obligation of the whole of the Mosaic law, but retained that name till they were admitted into the congregation of the Lord as adopted children. Gentiles were allowed to worship and offer sacrifices to the God of Israel in the outer court of the Temple; and some of them, persuaded of the sole and universal sovereignty of the Lord Jehovah, might renounce idolatry without embracing the Mosaic law; but such persons appear to me never to be called proselytes in Scripture, or in any ancient Christian writer." He also observes, that the term "proselyte of the gate," is derived from an expression frequent in the Old Testament, namely, "the stranger that is within the gates;" but, he says, "I think it evident that the strangers were those Gentiles who were permitted to live among the Jews under certain restrictions, and whom the Jews were forbidden to vex or oppress, so long as they lived in a peaceable manner."

Dr. Lardner is of much the same opinion, and he further says, "I do not believe that the notion of two sorts of Jewish proselytes can be found in any Christian writer before the fourteenth century or later,” and Dr. Jennings also observes, that "there does not appear to be sufficient evidence in the Scripture history of the existence of such proselytes of the gate as the Rabbins mention; nor, indeed, of any who with propriety can be styled proselytes, except such as fully embraced the Jewish religion."

In the initiation of proselytes to the Jewish religion, according to the Rabbinical writers, the three following observances were appointed, namely: circumcision, baptism, and the offering of sacrifice.

Circumcision was the seal of the covenant into which the proselyte entered with God, and of the solemn profession which he made to observe the entire Law of Moses; and if the proselyte were a Samaritan, or of any other nation which practised that rite, blood was to be drawn afresh.

The second ceremony was washing or baptism, which Maimonides says was done by dipping the whole body of the proselyte in water, and must be performed in the presence of three Jews of distinction, who stood by as witnesses. At the time of its performance, the proselyte declared his abhorrence of his past life, and that no secular motives, but a sincere love for the Law of Moses, induced him to be baptized; he having been previously instructed in the most essential parts of the Law. He promised, at the same time, to lead a holy life, to worship the true God, and to keep his commandments. Maimonides also observes, "In all ages, when a Gentile is willing to enter into the covenant of Israel, and place himself under the wings of the Divine Majesty, and take upon himself the yoke of the Law, he must be circumcised and baptized, and bring a sacrifice; or if it be a woman, be baptized and bring a sacrifice."

The third ceremony to be performed was that of offering sacrifice. It was a common notion among the Jews, that every person who had duly performed these rites was to be considered as a new-born babe. Maimonides says, "he received a new name, and was thenceforward reckoned a Jew. A Gentile who is become a proselyte, and a slave who is set at liberty, are both, as it were, new-born babes; which is the reason why those who were their parents before, are now no longer so."

Our blessed Lord is supposed to have found the principal qualities which He required in the proselytes of his covenant in that of the Jews. "The first condition of proselytism among the Jews was, that he, who came to embrace their religion, should come voluntarily, and that neither force nor influence should be employed in this business. This, also, is the first condition required by Jesus Christ, and which He considers as the foundation of all the rest: 'If any man be willing to come after me.' (Matt. 16. 24.) The second condition required in the Jewish proselyte was, that he should perfectly renounce all his prejudices, his errors, his idolatry, and everything that concerned his false religion, and that he should entirely separate himself from his most intimate friends and acquaintances. It was on this ground that the Jews called proselytism a new birth, and proselytes new-born and new men; and Our Lord requires men to be born again, not only of water but of the Holy Ghost. (John 3. 5.) All this Our Lord includes in this word, 'Let him renounce himself.' (Mark 8. 34.) To this the following Scriptures refer: Matt. 10.33; John 3. 35; 2Cor. 5. 17. The third condition, on which a person was admitted into the Jewish church as a prose lyte, was, that he should submit to the yoke of the Jewish law; and patiently bear the inconveniences and

comparisons, or to inculcate them in the very ancient forms of agreeable apologues. There are, indeed, both in Arabic and Persian, philosophical tracts on ethics, written with sound ratiocination and elegant perspicuity; but in every part of the Eastern world, from Pekin to Damascus, the popular teachers of moral wisdom have immemorially been poets; and there would be no end of enumerating their works, which are still extant in the five principal languages of Asia."

Proverbial instruction was a favourite style of composition among the Jews, which continued to the latest ages of their literature; and obtained among them the appellation of Mashalim, or parables, partly because it consisted of parables strictly so called, and partly because it possessed uncommon force and authority over the minds of the auditors. The proverbs of the Old Testament are classed by Bishop Lowth among the didactic poetry of the Hebrews, of which many specimens are extant, particularly the Book of Proverbs, composed by Solomon. The royal sage has, in one of his proverbs, himself explained the principal excellences of this form of composition; exhibiting at once a complete definition of a proverb, and a very happy specimen of what he describes:

Apples of gold in a net-work of silver,

Is a word seasonably spoken.-Prov. 25. 11. Thus intimating that grave and profound sentiments should be set off by a smooth and well-turned phraseology; as the appearance of beautiful and exquisitely coloured fruit, or the imitation of it, perhaps, in the most precious materials, is improved by the circumstance of its shining (as through a veil) through the reticulations of a silver vessel exquisitely carved. In the abovecited passage he further insinuates, that it is not merely a neat turn and polished diction by which proverbs must be recommended; but that truth itself acquires additional beauty when partially discovered through the veil of elegant fiction and imagery.

The ingenious but ever-disputing and loquacious Greeks were indebted to the same means for their earliest instruction in wisdom. The sayings of the seven wise men, the golden verses of Pythagoras, the remains of Thergius and Phocylides, if genuine, and the gnomai of the older poets, testify the prevalence of aphorisms in ancient Greece. This mode of communicating moral and practical wisdom accorded also with the sedate and deliberative character of the Romans; and, in truth, from their influence over the mind, and their fitness for popular instruction, proverbial expressions exist in all ages and in all languages.

Our Lord frequently employed proverbs in his public instructions; and the illustration of these proverbs has employed many learned men, who proceed partly by the aid of similar passages from the Old Testament, and partly from the ancient writings of the Jews, especially from the Talmud, whence it appears how much they were in use among that people, and that they were applied by Christ and his Apostles, agreeably to common usage. The proverbs contained in the Old and New Testaments are collected and illustrated by Drusius and Andreas Schottus, whose works are comprised in the ninth volume of the Critici Sacri, and also by Joachim Zehner, who has elucidated them by parallel passages from the Fathers, as well as from heathen writers, in a treatise published at Leipsic in 1601. The proverbs which are found in the New Testament have been illustrated by Vorstius and Visir, as well as by Lightfoot and Schoetgenius in their Hora Hebraica et Talmudice, and by Buxtorf in his Lexicon Chaldaicum Talmudicum et Rabbinicum; from which last-mentioned works Rosenmüller, Kuinoël, Dr. Whitby, Dr. Adam Clarke, and

other commentators, both British and foreign, have derived their illustrations of the Jewish parables and proverbs. See PROVERBS, BOOK OF.

The people of the East in the present day," Roberts remarks, "look upon the acquirements of antiquity as being every way superior to those of modern times; thus their noblest works of art, and their sciences, are indebted to antiquity for their invention and perfection. Instead, therefore, of their minds being enlightened and excited by the splendid productions of modern genius, they are ever reverting to the wisdom of their forefathers, and sighing over the loss of many of their occult sciences. We, on the other hand, by contemplating the imposing achievements of the present age, are in danger of looking with contempt on antiquity, and of pursuing, with thoughtless avidity, the novelties and speculations of modern inventions.

"Solomon could repeat three thousand proverbs, and his songs were a thousand and five;' and many of the philosophers of the present age in the East have scarcely any other wisdom. Listen to two men engaged in argument: should he who is on the point of being foiled quote an apposite proverb against his antagonist, an advantage is considered as having been gained, which scarcely anything can counteract. See a man who is pondering over some difficulty: his reason cannot decide as to the course he ought to pursue, when, perhaps, some one repeats a pallamulle, that is, an old saying; the whole of his doubts are at once removed, and he starts with vigour in the prescribed course.

"Young man talk not to me with infant wisdom; what are the sayings of the ancients? You ought to obey your parents. Listen! The father and the mother are the first deities a child has to acknowledge! Is it not said, Children who obey willingly are as ambrosia to the gods?'-'Were you my friend, you would not act thus; because, as the proverb says, True friends have but one soul in two bodies.'-'I am told you have been trying to ruin me; but will the moon be injured by the barking of a dog?'-'You have become proud, and conduct yourself like the upstart, who must carry his silk umbrella to keep off the sun at midnight.'-"You talk about your hopes of some coming good; what say the ancients? Expectation is the midday dream of life.'— Cease to be indolent; for, as our fathers said, Idleness is the rust of mind.'-'That you have been guilty of many crimes I cannot doubt, as the proverb says, Will there be smoke without fire?"

PROVERBS, BOOK OF, one of the canonical books of the Old Testament, ordinarily ascribed to Solomon, the wise king of Israel.

Some writers have doubted whether Solomon alone were the author of the Proverbs. Grotius thinks he had a compilation made, for his own use, of whatever was extant, excellent in point of morality, from all the ancient writers of his own nation; that under Hezekiah this collection was enlarged by adding what had been written since Solomon; and Eliakim, Shebna, and Joal, he thinks, completed the collection. (2Kings 18. 18.) But these conjectures are not supported by proof; and the Fathers and the generality of interpreters ascribe the whole book to Solomon.

It seems certain that the collection called the Proverbs of Solomon was arranged in the order in which we now have it by different hands; but it is not, therefore, to be concluded that they are not the productions of Solomon, who, we are elsewhere informed, spoke no less than three thousand proverbs. (1 Kings 4. 32.) As it is nowhere said that Solomon himself made a collection of

proverbs and sentences, the general opinion is, that several persons made a collection of them, perhaps as they were uttered by him. Hezekiah, among others, as mentioned in the 25th chapter: Agur, Isaiah, and Ezra, might have done the same. The Jewish writers affirm that Solomon wrote the Canticles, or song bearing his name, in his youth, the Proverbs in his riper years, and Ecclesiastes in his old age.

The Proverbs are, without doubt, the most valuable part of Solomon's works; he says they were fruits of his most profound meditations, and of his most excellent wisdom. (Eccles. 12. 9.) Here we find rules for the conduct of persons in all conditions of life; for kings, courtiers, and men of the world, for masters, servants, fathers, mothers, and children.

Michaëlis has observed that the Book of Proverbs is frequently cited by the Apostles, who considered it as a treasure of revealed morality, whence Christians were to derive their rules of conduct; and the canonical authority of no book of the Old Testament is so well ratified by the evidence of quotations as that of the Proverbs; whence he justly infers, that every commentator on the Greek Testament ought to be intimately acquainted with the Septuagint version of the Book of Proverbs, and that every Christian divine should consider it as the chief source of spiritual morality.

The Book of Proverbs is divided by Moldenhawer and Heidegger into five parts; but the late Dr. John Mason Good has divided it into four distinct books, or parts, "each of which," he observes, "is distinguished both by an obvious introduction, and a change of style and manner, though its real method and arrangement seem hitherto to have escaped the attention of our commentators and interpreters."

The Proverbs of Solomon hold a conspicuous rank among the metrical books of the Old Testament. Not only are they admirably adapted to convey instruction by the treasures of practical wisdom which they open to us, but they also afford us a noble specimen of the didactic poetry of the Hebrews, the nature of which they enable us to understand by means of the antithetic parallels with which they abound. Much, indeed, of the elegance, acuteness, and force which are discernible in Solomon's wise sayings, is derived from the antithetic form, the opposition of diction and sentiment. Hence a careful attention to the parallelism of members will contribute to remove that obscurity in which some of the proverbs appear to be involved. Sometimes, also, one member or part of a proverb must be supplied from the other; or, as has been said in other words, sometimes one thing is expressed in one member, and another in the other, and yet both are to be understood in both. See PROVERBS.

PROVIDENCE, implies the conduct and direction of the several parts of the universe, by a superior intelligent Being. By providence we understand, not merely foresight, but an uniform and constant directing operation of God subsequent to the act of creation. In every machine formed by human ingenuity, there is a necessity for the action of some extraneous power to put the machine in motion; construction and disposition of parts not being sufficient to effect the end: there must be a spring, or a weight, or an impulse of air or water, or some substance or other, on which the motion of the several parts of the machine depends. In like manner the machine of the universe depends upon its Creator for the commencement and the conservation of the motion of its several parts.

The power by which the insensible particles of matter coalesce into sensible masses, as well as that by which the

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great orbs of the universe are reluctantly, as it were, retained in their course, admits not an explication from mechanical causes: the effects of both of them are different from such as mere matter and motion can produce; they must, therefore, ultimately be referred to God. Vegetable and animal life and increase cannot be accounted for, without recurring to Him as the primary cause of both. In all these respects the providence of God is something more than foresight; it is a continual influence, and universal agency: "by Him all things consist," and in Him we "live, and move, and have our being."

The truth of the doctrine of Providence may be readily shown from the consideration of the Divine perfections. Even were the express testimony of Scripture wanting, the Deity cannot be supposed an indifferent spectator of the series of events in that world to which He has given being. His goodness will as certainly engage Him to direct them agreeably to the ends of goodness, as his wisdom and power enable Him to do it in the most effectual manner. This conclusion is conformable to all our ideas of those attributes. Could we call that being good who would refuse to do any good which he is able to do without the least labour or difficulty? God is present everywhere. He sees all that happens, and it is in his power, with perfect ease, to order all for the best. Can He then possess goodness, and at the same time not do this? A God without a providence, is undoubtedly a contradiction. Nothing is plainer than that a Being of perfect reason will, in every instance, take such care of the universe as such reason requires. That supreme intelligence and love, which are present to all things, and from whence all things sprung, must govern all occurrences. These considerations form what has been called a particular, in distinction from a general, providence. We cannot conceive of any reasons that can influence the Deity to exercise any providence over the world, which are not likewise reasons for extending it to all that happens in the world. As far as as it is confined to generals, or overlooks any individual or any event, it is incomplete, and therefore unsuitable to the idea of a perfect Being.

The uniform doctrine of the sacred writers is, that throughout the universe nothing happens without God; that his hand is ever active, and his decree of performance or sufferance intervenes in all; that nothing is too great or unwieldy for his management, and nothing so minute and inconsiderable as to be below his inspection and While He is guiding the sun and moon in their course through the heavens; while in this inferior world He is ruling among empires, stilling the raging of the waters, and the tumults of the people, He is at the same time watching over the humble good man, who is serving and worshipping Him in obscurity.

care.

Nothing can be more clear from the testimony of Scripture, than that God takes part in all that happens among mankind; directing and overruling the whole course of events, so as to make every one of them answer the designs of his righteous judgment. We cannot, indeed, conceive God acting as the governor of the world at all, unless his government were to extend to all the events that happen. It is upon the supposition of a particular providence, that our worship and prayers to Him are founded. All his perfections would be utterly inconsequential to us, if they were not exercised, on every occasion, according as the circumstances of his creatures required. The Almighty would then be no more than an unconcerned spectator of the behaviour of his subjects, regarding the obedient and the rebellious with an equal eye.

The personal experience of every one also must, more

or less, bear testimony to the truth of this doctrine. We need not for this purpose have recourse to those sudden and unexpected vicissitudes, which have sometimes astonished whole nations, and drawn their attention to the conspicuous hand of heaven; we need not appeal to the history of the statesman and the warrior; of the ambitious and enterprising: we may confine our observation to those whose lives have been most plain and simple, and who had no desire to depart from the ordinary train of conduct.

That our best contrived schemes and plans should so often fail even when our hopes are the highest, and that on the other hand blessings should be frequently bestowed on us in ways that we little expect, alike prove that, as the Apostle Peter says, God "careth for us," (1Pet. 5. 7,) and that all things are guided and directed by his good pleasure. Accident, and chance, and fortune, are words which we often hear mentioned, and much is ascribed to them in the life of men. But they are words without meaning; or, as far as they have any signification, they are not other than names for the unknown operations of Providence; for it is certain that in God's universe nothing comes to pass causelessly or in vain. Every event has its own determined direction. That chaos of human affairs and intrigues where we can see no light, that mass of disorder and confusion which they often present to our view, is all clearness and order in the sight of Ilim who is governing and directing all, and bringing forward every event in its due time and place. "The Lord sitteth on the flood. The Lord maketh the breath of man to praise him, as he maketh the hail and rain obey his word. He hath prepared his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom ruleth over all. A man's heart deviseth his way, but the Lord directeth his steps."

No other principle than this, embraced with a steady faith, and attended with a suitable practice, can ever be able to give repose and tranquillity to the mind, tɔ animate our hopes, or extinguish our fears; to give us any true satisfaction in the enjoyments of life, or to minister consolation under its adversities. If we are persuaded that God governs the world; that He has the superintendence and direction of all events; that we are the objects of his providential care; whatever may be our distress or danger, we can never want consolation. We may always have a fund of hope-always a prospect of of relief. But take away this hope, and this prospect, -take away the belief of God and of a superintending Providence, and men would be of all creatures the most miserable; destitute of every comfort, devoid of every support under present sufferings, and of every security against future dangers. Herder well remarks, "Job and the Psalms are a storehouse of observations and moral reflections on human life, on good and ill fortune, on pride and humility, true and false self-confidence, and confidence in God. They are the consolation of the unfortunate, and the support and strength of the poor. They come to him as a voice from heaven, to console him in his desolation, and they calm and quiet his soul. And since throughout the whole the eye of God is represented as watching over the course of human events, we may say, with truth, that this poetry has exhibited the same unity and simplicity in the succession of events in the world which it exhibited in the scenes of nature. The exhibition of art in the poetry of the Greeks is but tawdry ornament, compared with this child-like and pure simplicity; and in reading Celtic poetry, fond as I am of it, I always feel as if wandering beneath a clouded evening sky. It presents, indeed, beautiful scenes in the clouds and on the earth, but without a sun, without God, and without a purpose which is determinate, and capable of

giving unity to the whole. Man, at last, vanishes like a cloudy vapour, while in the East he stands upon a rock, with the everlasting God for his sure foundation.

"These simple and unstudied contrasts, child-like and artless reflections on the course of events, from the mouth of aged and experienced men, had a peculiar tendency to nourish the tender plant of a kind of poetry that breathes confidence in God, and in his special and providential regard for the human race. The Orientals, beyond a doubt, produced them; and the most ancient poetry of the Greeks is, in this respect, entirely Oriental in its character. But it was only in this simple form that they could be apprehended moreover by the most simple and undisciplined understanding, and seize upon the heart of man when most depressed and most in need of their influence. They are a kind of mirror of the world, and sum up the experience of the long and instructive life of the patriarchs. As mountains grow old, so empires fall into decay; as the fresh leaf puts forth, so new fortunes and new hopes spring up for man; thus the seasons of the year, and the periods of human life, the scenes of nature, and the varying aspects of human destiny, are connected together, and God is the controller of them all. Even at the present day, we may hear the experienced and moralizing old, when the fermenting elements of life have worked themselves clear, discoursing in the same tones with Job, the Psalms, and the Prophets, and the incredulous and headstrong youth finds by experience, at last, that they have discoursed truly. For the most part, too, the reflections in praise of Providence are suggested by the pictures and historical traditions which we have treated of, the Flood, and the memorials of Divine punishment, the confounding of human purposes, and exposure of hidden crimes. From these they proceed, as their source, and terminate throughout in the silent fear of God and wisdom of man, forming, without doubt, the richest treasure, the most useful poetry and instruction, as the guide of our shadowy and fleeting life. I could wish I were acquainted with a poem that combined, together in its representations, the most striking and affecting scenes of Providence in our history. The more simple, the more Oriental would it become in its general characteristics.”

PRUDENCE, is the act of suiting our words and actions according to the circumstances of things, or rules of right reason. It differs from wisdom only in degree, wisdom being nothing but a more consummate habit of prudence, and prudence a lower degree or weaker habit of wisdom.

This virtue is divided into: (1.) Christian prudence, which directs to the pursuit of that blessedness which the Gospel discovers by the use of Gospel means. (2.) Moral prudence, which has for its end peace and satisfaction of mind in this world, and the greatest happiness after death. (3.) Civil prudence, which is the knowledge of what ought to be done in order to secure the outward happiness of life, consisting in prosperity, liberty, &c. (4.) Monastic prudence, relating to any circumstances in which a man is not charged with the care of others. (5.) Economical prudence regards the conduct of a family. (6.) Political prudence refers to the good government of a state. Mason.

PRUNING-HOOK, mazmirah. (Isai. 2. 4; Joel 4. 10.) This word signifies a knife for pruning the vine. The manner of trimming the vine, zamir, signifying clipping, and also the singular instrument of the vinedresser, i mazmirah, were well known even in