This corpse (saith he, meaning of Paul) fortifies this city of Rome more strongly than any tower, or than ten thousand rampires, as also doth the corpse of Peter.* Are not these strong Mahuzzims?

The like whereunto is that of Venantius Fortunatus, a Christian Poet, not much above an age younger than Chrysostom :

A facie hostili duo propugnacula præsunt,
Quos Fidei turres urbs caput orbis habet.

The Faith's two towers in lady Rome do lie,
Two bulwarks strong against the enemy.

At the same thing aims Gregory, lib. vii., ep. 23, Ad Rusticianam Patriciam, entreating her to come to Rome, -If you fear the swords (saith he) and wars of Italy, you ought attentively to consider how great the protection of blessed Peter, the prince of the Apostles, is in this city, wherein, without any great number of people, without the aid of soldiers, we have been so many years, in the midst of swords, by God's providence safely preserved from all hurt.+

But to return again to St. Chrysostom, who, in his homily upon the Egyptian Martys, Hom. 70, Ad Populum Antiochenum, speaks after this manner,--Those Saints' bodies (saith he) fortify our city more strongly than an impregnable wall of adamant; and, as certain high rocks, hanging on every side, repel not only the assaults of those enemies which are sensible and seen by the eye, but also overthrow and defeat the ambuscadoes of invisible fiends, and all the stratagems of the Devil. Here you see are Mahuzzims too.

So, long before, in the days of Constantine, James Bishop of Nisibus, renowned for holiness, was, according to order given by Constantine in his lifetime, (saith Gen

* Παντος πυργου και μυρίων ὁστι περιβολων ασφαλεστερον. Si gladios Italiæ et bella formidetis, etc.

* Τειχίζει.

nadius,) buried within the walls of that city, being a frontier of the empire, ob custodiam: viz., Civitatis Gennad. de Vir. Illustr., cap. 6.

Evagrius, lib. i., cap. 13, tells us that the Antiochians offered up a supplication to the Emperor Leo the first, about the year 4600, for the keeping of the corpse of holy Simeon, surnamed Stylita, or the Pillarist, in this form,-Because our city hath no wall, [for it had been demolished in a fury,] therefore we brought hither this most holy body, that it might be to us a wall and a fortress; which would be in Hebrew leshur vlemahoz.

*

St. Hilary also will tell us, That neither the guards of Saints nor the bulwarks of Angels+ are wanting to those who are willing to stand. Here Angels are Mahuzzim, as Saints were in the former.

The Greeks at this day, in their Preces Horariæ, thus invocate the blessed Virgin,-O thou Virgin Mother of God, thou impregnable Wall, thou Fortress of Salvation, we call upon thee that thou would frustrate the purposes of our enemies, and be a fence to this city: thus they go on, calling her the hope, safeguard, and sanctuary of Christians. Here is Mahoz Mahuzzim, a strong Mahoz indeed.

To conclude, the titles of protectors, guardians, and defenders, which is the signification of Mahuzzim, when a person is meant, as they are more frequent, so are they no less ancient. Greg. Nyssen., in his third oration on the forty Martyrs, calls them guarders and protectors.§ Eucherius calls his St. Gervase the perpetual protector|| of the faithful. Theodoret, lib. 8, de Curandis Græcorum Affectionibus, calls the holy Martyrs guardians of cities, lieutenants of places, captains of men, princes, champions, and guardians, by whom disasters are turned from us,

* Τείχος και οχυρωμα. + Angelorum munitiones. * Mahoz yeshuhoth, Psal. xxviii. § Δορυφεροι και ὑπερασπίσται, | Propugnator.

and those which come from devils debarred and driven away.

I might here add something also concerning Images, whose worship is another part of the "doctrine of deinons," and show how well the name Mahuzzim would befit them, which the Iconomachical Council of Constantinople calls so unluckily the fortresses or Mahuzzim of the Devil. And perhaps the nine and thirtieth verse in the fore-alleged prophecy might be yet more literally translated, if the word gnasah, [facere,] were taken in a religious sense," And he shall [do unto, or] offer unto the holds of Mahuzzim, together with the foreign God," &c., that is, he shall do religious service to the Images Saints together with Christ. I might also put you in mind of the term of munimentum given to the Cross, and that so usual Latin phrase of munire signo crucis, to fortify (that is, to sign) with the sign of the Cross; but I will not engage myself too far in these grammatical speculations.

As for the following verses of this prophecy, if any desire to know it, they may, I think, be interpreted and applied thus:

"Verse 40. And at the time of the end [that is, in the Roman's or Latter Times] shall the King of the South [that is, the Saracen] push at him, and the King of the North [the Turk] shall come against him [to wit, the Saracen] like a whirlwind, with chariots and with horsemen, and many ships, and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.

"41. He shall enter also into the glorious land, [Palestine,] and many shall be overthrown; but these shall escape out of his hand, Edom and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon: that is, the inhabitants of Arabia Petræa, which were never yet provincials of the Turkish empire; yea with some of them he is fain to be at a pension for the safer passage of his caravans.

"Verse 42. He [the Turk] shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries [of those parts], and the land of Egypt [though it should hold out long under the Mamelukes, even till the year 1517] shall not escape;

"43. But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and silver, and all the precious things of Egypt; and the Libyans and the Cushites [that is, the neighbouring nations, whether of Africa or Libya, as those of Algiers, &c., or of the Arabians, in Scripture called Cushim] shall be at his steps," that is, at his devotion.

That which remains, as I suppose, is not yet fulfilled, and therefore I leave it: time will make it manifest.