An Historical and Critical Dictionary (Volume 1)

Book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1826. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... ancient Romish clergy, only to draw a picture which might cast an odium upon the present state of the episcopalians. We find, in Milton's life, that his History of England, as far as William the Conqueror, was printed in the year 1670, but not such as he wrote it, for the licenser struck out several passages, which contained a description of the superstition, luxury, and craft of the ecclesiastics, who lived under the Saxon kings. The revisors of the manuscript fancied that it was a reflection upon the clergy under the reign of Charles II. The author of that life adds, that sir Robert Howard, having heard that he was accused of having whipped, in a certain book, the clergy of England, upon the back of the Pagan and Popish priests, answered ironically and subtilly, what had they to do there 1--Art. Perieks. DAVID. David, king of the Jews, was one of the greatest men in the world, even though we should not consider him as a royal prophet, who was after God's own heart. The first time that the scripture makes him appear on the stage of the world is to inform us that Samuel appointed him king, and performed the ceremony of anointing him. David was then but a mere shepherd; being the youngest of the eight sons of Jesse the Bethlehemite, descended in a direct line from Judah, one of the twelve sons of Jacob, and who dwelt at Bethlehem, a small city of the tribe of Judah. Some modern rabbins say that, when David was conceived, his father Jesse did not think that he lay with his wife, but with his servant maid, and thereby explain the seventh verse of the fifty-first psalm, wherein David affirms, that he was shapen in iniquity, and that his mother conceived him in sin. This, say they, signifies that his father Jesse committed an adultery in begetting him, becsuse...