the creation for the kingdom of Christ, to the pains of a woman in travail.

The same metaphor is not unusual in Pagan authors; and Tully hath it more than once.* It is likewise understood by the Persian and Egyptian Interpreters of affliction and cares, in ch. cxxvii.

On the other hand, the symbol of the birth betokens joy and deliverance; and especially if the child be a male; as in John xvi. 21. And in Isa. lxvi. 7, where the manchild is interpreted by the Targum of a king, a deliverer.

Agreeably to this Artemidorus, in L. i. c. 16, says, "Male children bring good success ;" and in the preceding chapter his words are, "for a poor man, a debtor, and a slave, and any one that is in any bad circumstances whatsoever, to dream that he brings forth a child, signifies that he shall clear himself of all his grievances. And the reason is plain, because it is a deliverance from the pains, in which he was before, signified by the pregnancy.

[Parturition also signifies the birth of a community, either ecclesiastical or civil, according as the tenor of the prophecy shall determine, Isa. lxvi. S; Rev. xii. 2, 5. ].

TREAD (under or trample upon) signifies to overcome and bring under subjection. Thus in Psa. lx. 12: "Through God we shall do valiantly; for it is he that shall tread down our enemies." See also Isa. x. 6; xiv. 25.

To tread upon oaths, in Homer, signifies to break or violate them. See II. A. ver. 157, where the word Ilarέw is used.

TREES were at first, in the primitive way of building, used for pillars; and agreeably to this they denote in the symbolical language, according to their respective bulks and height, the several degrees of great or rich men, or the nobles of a kingdom; as in Zech. xi. 1, 2, "Open

* M. T. C. pro. Muren. & Phil. ii.

thy doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour thy cedars. Howl, O fir-tree, for the cedar is fallen, because all the mighty are spoiled. Howl, O ye oaks of Basan, for the forest of the vintage is come down." Where the words, "all the mighty are spoiled," shew that the prophecy does not point at trees but at men.

See to the same purpose, Isa. ii. 13; x. 17—19; xiv. 8; Jer. xxii. 7, 23; Ezek. xxxi. 4.

The Oneirocritics are very full in this particular; as the Persian and Egyptian in ch. cxlii., and all of them in chaps. cli., and clxv., where trees blown down with the wind signify the destruction of great men.

Homer, who has many remnants and notions of the Eastern learning, and whose comparisons are exactly just, very often compares his heroes to trees; as in L. xiv., Hector, felled by a stone, is compared to an oak overturned by a thunderbolt. In L. iv., the fall of Simoïsius is compared to that of a poplar; and in L. xvii. that of Euphorbus to the fall of a beautiful olive.

A tree exceeding great may be the symbol of a king or monarchy, as in Dan. iv.; and as the vine, in the dream of Astyages, cited by Valerius Maximus.*

As Trees denote great men and princes, so boughs, branches, sprouts, or plants denote their offspring. In conformity to which way of speaking, Christ, in Is. xi. 1, in respect of his human nature, is styled “ A rod of the stem of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots," that is, a prince arising from the family of David.

Thus in the dream of Clytemnestra in Sophocles,† from the sceptre of Agamemnon fixed by himself in the ground, a sprout arising, spreading, and overshadowing all his kingdom, denoted that a young prince of his blood should arise, and, dispossessing the tyrant Ægisthus of his government, should be settled in the kingdom, to govern and

*Val. M. L. i. c. 7. Ext. § 5.

+ Soph. Electr. ver. 418, &c

protect it. To the same purpose is the dream of Nassereddin Sebekteghin, cited by Herbelot, that a tree grew and increased insensibly out of his hearth in the middle of his chamber, which stretched out its branches all over the room, and going out at the windows did cover the whole house; all which is explained of his son's conquering the greatest part of Asia. So in Cassiodorus,* Baltheum Germen is a young prince of the Balthean race.

In Homer los "Apnos, a bough of Mars, for a son of Mars, often occurs; as in his catalogue of ships, Il. ii. vers. 47, 170, 211, 252, 349. And the like kind of expression is used in Pindar, and other Greek authors.† And so in our English tongue, the word imp, which is originally Saxon, and denotes a plant, is used to the same purpose, particularly by Fox the Martyrologist, who calls King Edward VI. an imp of great hope; and by Thomas Cromwell Earl of Essex, in his dying speech, who has the same expression concerning the same prince.

[A CEDAR denotes an empire, as in Ezek. xxxi. 3, where the Assyrian empire is represented under the image of a majestic cedar of prodigious growth.

"GREEN TREE," denotes the righteous; "dry tree," the wicked, as appears from Ezek. xx. 47, compared with xxi. 4. In the latter passage the prophet repeats in plain language what, in the former, he had spoken in symbolical.]

ROOT is the producer and bearer of a tree, and so denotes the origin from whence a person has his rise or being.

Thus Christ, who in respect of his human nature is the offspring, the son and successor of David in the government of the Jews, is also, in respect of his Divine nature, the root of David, the Lord from whom David received his government over the Jews.

* Cass. Var. L. viii. Ep. 5.

† Pind. Olymp. 2. & 6.

LEAVES of a TREE are explained by the Oneirocritics in ch. xv. of 'Av0рúπшv (of the common sort of men), as trees themselves are the symbols of 'Ανδρῶν and Μεγιστάνων, of the better sort of men, and of the nobles of the kingdom.

According to the same Interpreters, leaves in their prime, being green, strong, and whole, denote men of a sound judgment; but leaves weak, stinking, and withered, men of a weak judgment and depraved manners.

The same authors, in ch. cc., consider the symbol in another light, explaining leaves of clothes; upon the account of the analogy of the one to the other, in that both serve for a covering.

FIG TREES, taken symbolically, signify women. Thus in Artemidorus, L. v. c. 35, there is a dream of a fig-tree growing, from which figs are gathered, which is explained of receiving an inheritance from a female relation. And in Pliny* there is an account of a fig-tree being found growing upon the top of the Capitol, in the same place where a palm-tree had before stood, and was blown down with the wind, which was understood by Piso of the growing lewdness of the Romans.

[Fig Tree is the symbol of the Jewish nation, as in Luke xiii. 6, 9, and in Matt. xxi. 19, where our Lord's act is symbolical of the judgments about to fall on them. In Jer. xxiv. the Jewish people are represented by two baskets of figs, the one basket very good, like the figs that are first ripe; and the other basket very naughty figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad, vers. 2, 3.†]

*Plin. Nat. Hist. L. xvii. c. 35.

†The promise of a return, after the expiration of seventy years, was given, not to the Jews in general, but to those only who were at that time at Babylon, as will appear by comparing Jer. xxiv. 5-7, with xxix. 10, 11. That the rest of the nation was not included in this promise, is plain from xxiv. 8-10, and xxix. 16—18. This is overlooked by those who interpret the prophecies which relate to the restoration of the Jewish people, as having received their accomplishment at the return from Babylon.

OLIVE TREE, upon the account of its verdure, soundness, and the usefulness of the oil it produces, is, with the Oneirocritics, ch. cc., the symbol of a person happy, blessed, and praise-worthy. And thus the Psalmist, in describing the happiness of a man blessed of God, says, "His children shall be like the olive branches round about his table."

In Artemidorus, L. ii., the olive tree is the symbol of a wife, of combat, principality, and liberty.

In the prophet Zechariah, iv. 3, 11, 14, the two olive trees on either side of the lamp sconces, pouring oil into the lamps, are there explained to be the two anointed ones; that is, two heads of the captivity-the one Zorobabel, as captain of the people; the other Joshua, as high priest.

This type plainly signified, that those two heads did maintain the nation of the captive Jews, both as to their ecclesiastical and civil state; even as the olive trees which afford oil do maintain the light in the lamps, the symbols of government.

[An olive tree is also the symbol of the Church. Jer. xi. 16: "The Lord called thy name a green olive tree, fair, and of goodly fruit." The same symbol is adopted (Rom. xi. 17, 24) where the conversion of the Gentiles is described by the figure of a wild olive grafted into a good olive, and thus producing valuable fruit.]

TREE of LIFE is a tree that gives fruit to eternal life, so that they who eat thereof continually shall never die.

It is thus explained Gen. iii. 22, and is therefore a proper symbol to signify immortality.

From the happiness of eating of the tree of life in Paradise, any sort of true happiness or joy may come under the symbol of a tree of life; as in Proverbs xv. 4, “A wholesome tongue is a tree of life;" and so also in ch. xi. 30, "Hope deferred maketh the heart sick; but when the desire cometh it is a tree of life."