CIN approbation of most of those who compiled the Articles nine years afterward, it will be of consequence to see how it stands affected toward Calvinism. It teaches the cardinal point of universal redemption in several places; which strikes directly at the root of the Calvinian system, and, as Dr. Whitby expresses it, draws all the rest after it, on which side soever the truth lies." This judicious amplitude has received much elucidation in Dr. Puller's Moderation of the Church of England considered, 1679; and in other works of more recent date. 4. In this church, divine service is conduct. ed by a liturgy, which was composed in 1547, and has undergone several alterations, the last of which took place in 1661, in the reign of Charles II. Many applications have been since made for a review; and particular alterations were proposed in 1689, by several learned and excellent divines, in the number of whom were Archbishops Tillotson and Tenison, and Bishops Patrick, Burnet, Stillingfleet, Kidder, &c. This subject has been recently revived; and it is believed that some changes are under consideration. To this liturgy every clergyman promises at his ordination to conform in his public ministrations. the richest perfumes. This spice is now brought CINNEROTH, or CINNERETH, a city on CIRCUMCISION is from the Latin, circumcidere, "to cut all round," because the Jews, in circumcising their children, cut off after this manner the skin which covers the prepuce. God enjoined Abraham to use circumcision, as a sign of his covenant. In obedience to this order, Abraham, at ninety-nine years of age, was circumcised: also his son Ishmael, and all the males of his property, Gen. xvii, 10. God repeated the precept of circumcision to Moses: he ordered that all who were to partake of the paschal sacrifice should receive circumcision; and that this rite should be performed on children, on the eighth day after 5. Ever since the reign of Henry VIII, the their birth. The Jews have always been very sovereigns of England have been styled "su- exact in observing this ceremony, and it appreme heads of the church," as well as "defend- pears that they did not neglect it when in ers of the faith;" but this title is said to convey Egypt. But Moses, while in Midian with Jeno spiritual meaning; or, in other words, it thro his father-in-law, did not circumcise his only substitutes the king in place of the pope, two sons born in that country; and during the with respect to temporalities, and the external journey of the Israelites in the wilderness, their economy of the church. The church of Eng- children were not circumcised. Circumcision land is governed by two archbishops and twen- was practised among the Arabians, Saracens, ty-four bishops, beside the bishop of Sodor and and Ishmaelites. These people, as well as the Man. The benefices of the bishops were con- Israelites, sprung from Abraham. Circumciverted by William the Conqueror into temporal sion was introduced with the law of Moses baronies; and, therefore, all of them, except among the Samaritans and Cutheans. the bishop of Man, are barons or lords of par. Idumeans, though descended from Abraham liament, and sit and vote in the house of lords, and Isaac, were not circumcised till subdued where they represent the clergy. The bishops' by John Hircanus. Those who assert that the representatives and assistants are the archdea- Phenicians were circumcised, mean, probably, cons, of whom there are sixty in England. The the Samaritans; for we know, from other auother dignitaries of the church are the deans, thority, that the Phenicians did not observe prebendaries, canons, &c; and the inferior this ceremony. As to the Egyptians, circumclergy are the rectors, vicars, and curates. The cision never was of general and indispensable united church knows only three orders of minis-obligation on the whole nation; certain priests ters; bishops, priests, and deacons: but in these orders are comprehended archbishops, bishops, deans, archdeacons, rectors, vicars, and curates. The church of Ireland is govern. ed by four archbishops and eighteen bishops. Since the union of Britain and Ireland, one archbishop and three bishops sit alternately in the house of peers, by rotation of sessions. CILICIA, a country in the south-east of Asia Minor, and lying on the northern coast, at the east end of the Mediterranean Sea : the capital city thereof was Tarsus, the native city of St. Paul, Acts xxi, 39. CINNAMON, nap, an agreeable aromatic; the inward bark of the canella, a small tree of the height of the willow. It is mentioned, Exodus xxx, 23, among the materials in the composition of the holy anointing oil; and in Proverbs vii, 17; Canticles iv, 14; Ecclesiasticus xxiv, 15; and Revelation xviii, 13, among The only, and particular professions, were obliged to it. Circumcision is likewise the ceremony of initiation into the Mohammedan religion. There is, indeed, no law in the Koran which enjoins it, and they have the precept only in tradition. They say that Mohammed commanded it out of respect to Abraham, the head of his race. They have no fixed day for the performance of this rite, and generally wait till the child is five or six years of age. CIRCUMCISION, Covenant of. That the covenant with Abraham, of which circumcision was made the sign and seal, Genesis xvii, 7-14, was the general covenant of grace, and not wholly, or even chiefly, a political and national cove. nant, may be satisfactorily established. The first engagement in it was, that God would "greatly bless" Abraham; which promise, although it comprehended temporal blessings, referred, as we learn from St. Paul, more fully thus explains the case: "And he received the SIGN of circumcision, a SEAL of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised." And as this rite was enjoined upon Abraham's posterity, so that every "uncircumcised man-child whose flesh of his foreskin was not circumcised on the eighth day," was to be "cut off from his people," by the special judgment of God, and that because "he had broken God's covenant," Gen. xvii, 14; it therefore follows that this rite was a constant publication of God's covenant of grace among the descendants of Abraham, and its repetition a continual confirmation of that covenant, on the part of God, to all practising it in that faith of which it was the ostensible expression. 2. As the covenant of grace made with Abraprivileges, so circumcision was a sign and seal of the covenant in both its parts, its spiritual and its temporal, its superior and inferior provisions. The spiritual promises of the cove. nant continued unrestricted to all the descend. ants of Abraham, whether by Isaac or by Ishmael; and still lower down, to the descendants of Esau as well as to those of Jacob. Circum. cision was practised among them all by virtue of its divine institution at first; and was extended to their foreign servants, and to proselytes, as well as to their children; and whereever the sign of the covenant of grace was by divine appointment, there it was as a seal of that covenant, to all who believingly used it; for we read of no restriction of its spiritual blessings, that is, its saving engagements, to one line of descent from Abraham only. But to the blessing of his justification by the impu. tation of his faith for righteousness, with all the spiritual advantages consequent upon the relation which was thus established between him and God, in time and eternity. The second promise in the covenant was, that he should be "the father of many nations;" which we are also taught by St. Paul to interpret more with reference to his spiritual seed, the followers of that faith whereof cometh justification, than to his natural descendants. "That the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to that which is by the law, but to that also which is by the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all," of all believing Gentiles as well as Jews. The third stipulation in God's covenant with the patriarch, was the gift to Abraham and to his seed of "the land of Ca-ham was bound up with temporal promises and naan," in which the temporal promise was manifestly but the type of the higher promise of a heavenly inheritance. Hence St. Paul says, By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise;" but this "faith" did not respect the fulfilment of the temporal promise; for St. Paul adds, "they looked for a city which had foundations, whose builder and maker is God," Heb. xi, 19. The next promise was, that God would always be "a God to Abraham and to his seed after him," a promise which is connected with the highest spiritual blessings, such as the remission of sins, and the sanetification of our nature, as well as with a visible church state. It is even used to express the felicitous state of the church in heaven, Rev. xxi, 3. The final engagement in the Abrahamic covenant was, that in Abra-over the temporal branch of the covenant, and ham's "seed, all nations of the earth should be the external religious privileges arising out of blessed;" and this blessing, we are expressly it, God exercised a rightful sovereignty, and taught by St. Paul, was nothing less than the expressly restricted them first to the line of justification of all nations, that is, of all believ. Isaac, and then to that of Jacob, with whose ers in all nations, by faith in Christ: "And descendants he entered into special covenant the Scripture, foreseeing that God would jus. by the ministry of Moses. The temporal bless. tify the Heathen by faith, preached before the ings and external privileges comprised under Gospel to Abraham, saying, In thee shall all general expressions in the covenant with Abra. nations be blessed. So then they who are of ham, were explained and enlarged under that faith are blessed with believing Abraham;" of Moses, while the spiritual blessings remain. they receive the same blessing, justification, by ed unrestricted as before. This was probably the same means, faith, Gal. iii, 8, 9. This cove- the reason why circumcision was reenacted nant with Abrakam, therefore, although it re-under the law of Moses. It was a confirmation spected a natural seed, Isaac, from whom a of the temporal blessings of the Abrahamic cove. numerous progeny was to spring; and an earth- nant, now, by a covenant of peculiarity, made ly inheritance provided for this issue, the land over to them, while it was still recognized as of Canaan; and a special covenant relation a consuetudinary rite which had descended to with the descendants of Isaac, through the line them from their fathers, and as the sign and of Jacob, to whom Jehovah was to be "a God," seal of the covenant of grace, made with visibly and specially, and they a visible and Abraham and with all his descendants without "peculiar people;" yet was, under all these exception. This double reference of circumcitemporal, earthly, and external advantages, but sion, both to the authority of Moses and to a higher and spiritual grace embodying itself that of the patriarchs, is found in the words under these circumstances, as types of a dis. of our Lord, John vii, 22: "Moses therefore pensation of salvation and eternal life, to all gave unto you circumcision, not because it is who should follow the faith of Abraham, whose of Moses, but of the fathers;" or, as it is betjustification before God was the pattern of the ter translated by Campbell, "Moses institutjustification of every man, whether Jew or Gen-ed circumcision among you, (not that it is tile, in all ages. Now, of this covenant, in its spiritual as well as in its temporal provisions, circumcision was most certainly the sacrament, that is the "sign" and the "seal;" for St. Paul from Moses, but from the patriarchs,) and ye circumcise on the Sabbath. If on the Sabbath a child receive circumcision, that the law of Moses may not be violated," &c. (1.) It might be taken in the simple view of its first institution, as the sign and seal of the Abrahamic covenant; and then it was to be condemned as involving a denial that Abraham's Seed, the Christ, had already come, since, upon his coming, every old covenant gave place to the new covenant introduced by him. (2.) It might be practised and enjoined as the sign and seal of the Mosaic covenant, which was still the Abrahamic covenant with its spiritual blessings, but with restriction of its temporal promises and special ecclesiastical privileges to the line of Jacob, with a law of observances which was obligatory upon all In 3. From these observations, tae controversy | every man that is circumcised, that he is a in the Apostolic churches respecting circum. debtor to do the whole law. Christ is made of cision will derive much elucidation. The cove. no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justi. nant with Abraham prescribed circumcision as fied by the law, ye are fallen from grace." The an act of faith in its promises, and as a pledge second is that milder view which he himself to perform its conditions on the part of his de- must have had when he circumcised Timothy scendants. But the object on which this faith to render him more acceptable to the Jews; rested, was "the Seed of Abraham," in whom and which also appears to have led him to ab. the nations of the earth were to be blessed: stain from all allusion to this practice when which Seed, says St. Paul, "is Christ,"-Christ writing his epistle to the believing Hebrews, as promised, not yet come. When the Christ although many, perhaps most of them, conhad come, so as fully to enter upon his redeem- tinue to circumcise their children, as did the ing offices, he could no longer be the object of Jewish Christians for a long time afterward. faith, as still to come; and this leading pro. These different views of circumcision, held by mise of the covenant being accomplished, the the same person, may be explained by considersign and seal of it vanished away. Nor could ing the different principles on which circumcircumcision be continued in this view by any, cision might be practised after it had become without an implied denial that Jesus was the an obsolete ordinance. Christ, the expected Seed of Abraham. Cir. cumcision also as an institution of Moses, who continued it as the sign and seal of the Abrahamic covenant both in its spiritual and temporal provisions, but with respect to the latter made it also a sign and seal of the restriction of its temporal blessings and peculiar religious privileges to the descendants of Israel, was terminated by the entrance of our Lord upon his office of Mediator, in which office all nations were to be blessed in him. The Mosaic edition of the covenant not only guaranteed the land of Canaan, but the peculiarity of the Israelites, as the people and visible church of God to the exclusion of others, except by pro-entering that covenant by circumcision. selytism. But when our Lord commanded the that case it involved, in like manner, the noGospel to be preached to "all nations," and tion of the continuance of an old covenant, opened the gates of the "common salvation" after the establishment of the new; for thus to all, whether Gentiles or Jews, circumci- St. Paul states the case in Galatians iii, 19: sion, as the sign of a covenant of peculiarity Wherefore then serveth the law? It was and religious distinction, was also done away. added because of transgressions until the Seed It had not only no reason remaining, but should come." After that therefore it had no the continuance of the rite involved the re-effect--it had waxed old, and had vanished cognition of exclusive privileges which had been terminated by Christ. This will explain the views of the Apostle Paul on this great question. He declares that in Christ there is neither circumcision nor uncircumcision; that neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but "faith that worketh by love;" faith in the Seed of Abraham already come and already engaged in his mediatorial and redeeming work; faith, by virtue of which the Gentiles came into the church of Christ on the same terms as the Jews themselves, and were justified and saved. The doctrine of the non-necessity of circumcision, he applies to the Jews as well as to the Gentiles, although he specially resists the attempts of the Judaizers to impose this rite upon the Gentile converts; in which he was supported by the decision of the Holy Spirit when the appeal upon this question was made to "the Apostles and elders at Jerusalem," from the church at Antioch. At the same time it is clear that he takes two different views of the practice of circumcision, as it was continued among many of the first Christians. The first is that strong one which is expressed in Gal. v, 2-4, "Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing; for I testify again to away. (3.) Again: circumcision might imply an obligation to observe all the ceremonial usages and the moral precepts of the Mosaic law, along with a general belief in the mission of Christ, as necessary to justification before God. This appears to have been the view of those among the Galatian Christians who submitted to circumcision, and of the Jewish teachers who enjoined it upon them; for St. Paul in that epistle constantly joins circumcision with legal observances, and as involving an obliga. tion to do "the whole law," in order to justification."I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law; whosoever of you are justified by the law, ye are fallen from grace." "Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ," Gal. ii, 16. To all persons therefore practising circumcision in this view it was obvious, that "Christ was become of none effect," the very principle of justification by faith alone in him was renounced even while his divine mission was still admitted. (4.) But there are two grounds on which cir cumcision may be conceived to have been innocently, though not wisely, practised, among matter of necessity, yet in practice must have conformed to many of them, when no sacrifice of principle was understood; for, in order to gain the Jews, he became "as a Jew." See ABRAHAM, and BAPTISM. CISLEU, the ninth month of the ecclesias CISTERN, a reservoir chiefly for rain wa ter. Numbers of these are still to be seen in Palestine, some of which are a hundred and fifty paces long, and sixty broad. The reason of their being so large was, that their cities were many of them built in elevated situations; and the rain falling only twice in the year, namely, spring and autumn, it became necessary for them to collect a quantity of water, as well for the cattle as for the people. A broken cistern would of course be a great calamity to a family, or in some cases even to a town; and with reference to this we may see the force of the reproof, Jer. ii, 13. the Christian Jews. The first was that of preserving an ancient national distinction on which they valued themselves; and were a converted Jew in the present day disposed to perform that rite upon his children for this purpose only, renouncing in the act all consideration of it as a sign and seal of the old cove-tical, and the third of the civil, year among nants, or as obliging to ceremonial acts in the Hebrews. It answers nearly to our No. order to justification, no one would censure vember. him with severity. It appears clear that it was under some such view that St. Paul circumcised Timothy, whose mother was a Jewess; he did it because of "the Jews which were in those quarters," that is, because of their national prejudices, for they knew that his father was a Greek." The second was a lingering notion, that, even in the Christian church, the Jews who believed would still retain some degree of eminence, some superior relation to God; a notion which, however unfounded, was not one which demanded direct rebuke, when it did not proudly refuse spiritual communion with the converted Gentiles, but was held by men who "rejoiced that God had CITIES. By referring to some peculiarigranted to the Gentiles repentance unto life." ties in the building, fortifying, &c, of eastern These considerations may account for the cities we shall the better understand several silence of St. Paul on the subject of circum- allusions and expressions of the Old Testament. cision in his Epistle to the Hebrews. Some It is evident that the walls of fortified cities of them continued to practise that rite, but they were sometimes partly constructed of comwere probably believers of the class just men-bustible materials; for the Prophet, denouncing tioned; for had he thought that the rite was continued among them on any principle which affected the fundamental doctrines of Christianity, he would no doubt have been equally prompt and fearless in pointing out that apos. tasy from Christ which was implied in it, as when he wrote to the Galatians. Not only might circumcision be practised with views so opposite that one might be wholly innocent, although an infirmity of prejudice; the other such as would involve a rejection of the doctrine of justification by faith in Christ; but some other Jewish observances also stood in the same circumstances. St. Paul in his Epistle to the Galatians, a part of his writings from which we obtain the most information on these questions, grounds his "doubts" whether the members of that church were not seeking to be "justified by the law" upon their observ. ing "days, and months, and times, and years." Had he done more than "doubt," he would have expressed himself more positively. He saw their danger on this point; he saw that they were taking steps to this fatal result, by such an observance of these "days," &c, as had a strong leaning and dangerous approach to that dependence upon them for justification, which would destroy their faith in Christ's solely sufficient sacrifice; but his very doubt ing, not of the fact of their being addicted to these observances, but of the animus with which they regarded them, supposes it possible, however dangerous this Jewish conformity might be, that they might be observed for reasons which would still consist with their entire reliance upon the merits of Christ for salvation. Even he himself, strongly as he resisted the imposition of this conformity to Jewish customs upon the converts to Christianity as a the judgments of God upon Syria and other countries, declares, "I will send a fire on the wall of Gaza, which shall devour the palaces thereof," Amos i, 7. The walls of Tyre and Rabbah seem to have been of the same perishable materials; for the Prophet adds, "I will send a fire upon the wall of Tyrus, which shall devour the palaces thereof;" and again, "I will kindle a fire in the walls of Rabbah, and it shall devour the palaces thereof with shouting in the day of battle," verses 10, 14. One method of securing the gates of fortified places, among the ancients, was to cover them with thick plates of iron; a custom which is still used in the east, and seems to be of great antiquity. We learn from Pitts, that Algiers has five gates, and some of these have two, some three, other gates within them; and some of them are plated all over with thick iron. The place where the Apostle was imprisoned seems to have been secured in the same manner; for, says the inspired historian, "When they were past the first and second ward, they came unto the iron gate that leadeth unto the city; which opened to them of its own accord," Acts xii, 10. Pococke, speaking of a bridge not far from Antioch, called the iron bridge, says, there are two towers belonging to it, the gates of which are covered with iron plates; which he sup poses is the reason of the name it bears. Some of their gates are plated over with brass; such are the enormous gates of the principal mosque at Damascus, formerly the church of John the Baptist. To gates like these, the Psalmist probably refers in these words: "He hath broken the gates of brass," Psalm cvii, 16; and the Prophet, in that remarkable passage, where God promises to go before Cyrus his anointed, and "break in pieces the gates of CITIES OF REFUGE. See REFUGE. brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron," Isa. | of Abimelech, retired into one of these towers, xlv, 2. But, conscious that all these precau- and bid defiance to his rage: "But there was tions were insufficient for their security, the a strong tower within the city, and thither fled orientals employed watchmen to patrol the city all the men and women, and all they of the during the night, to suppress any disorders in city, and shut it to them, and gat them up to the streets, or to guard the walls against the the top of the tower." The extraordinary attempts of a foreign enemy. To this custom strength of this tower, and the various means Solomon refers in these words: "The watch- of defence which were accumulated within its men that went about the city found me, they narrow walls, may be inferred from the viosmote me, they wounded me; the keepers of lence of Abimelech's attack, and its fatal issue : the wall took away my veil from me," Song "And Abimelech came unto the tower, and v, 7. This custom may be traced to a very fought against it, and went hard unto the remote antiquity; so early as the departure of door of the tower, to burn it with fire. And a Israel from the land of Egypt, the morning certain woman cast a piece of a millstone upon watch is mentioned, certainly indicating the Abimelech's head, and all to break his skull," time when the watchmen were commonly re- Judges ix, 52. The city of Shechem had a lieved. In Persia, the watchmen were obliged tower of the same kind, into which the people to indemnify those who were robbed in the retired, when the same usurper took it and streets; which accounts for the vigilance and sowed it with salt, Judges ix, 46. These strong severity which they display in the discharge towers which were built within a fortified city, of their office, and illustrates the character of were commonly placed on an eminence, to watchman given to Ezekiel, and the duties he which they ascended by a flight of steps. Such was required to perform. If the wicked perished was the situation of the city of David, a strong in his iniquities without warning, the Prophet tower upon a high eminence at Jerusalem; was to be accountable for his blood; but if he and the manner of entrance, as described by duly pointed out his danger, he delivered his the sacred writer: "But the gate of the fountown soul, Ezek. xxxiii, 2. They were also ain repaired Shallum, unto the stairs that go charged, as with us, to announce the progress down from the city of David," Nehemiah of the night to the slumbering city: "The bur- iii, 15. den of Dumah; he calls to me out of Seir, Watchman, what of the night? watchman, CLAUDIUS, a Roman emperor; he suc what of the night? The watchman said, The ceeded Caius Caligula, A. D. 41, and reigned morning cometh, and also the night," Isa. xxi, thirteen years, eight months, and nineteen 11. This is confirmed by an observation of days, dying A. D. 54. King Agrippa was the Chardin upon these words of Moses: "For a principal means of persuading Claudius to acthousand years in thy sight are but as yester. cept the empire, which was tendered him by day when it is past, and as a watch in the the soldiers. As an acknowledgment for this night:" that as the people of the east have no service, he gave Agrippa all Judea, and the clocks, the several parts of the day and of the kingdom of Chalcis to his brother Herod. He night, which are eight in all, are announced. put an end to the dispute which had for some In the Indies, the parts of the night are made time existed between the Jews of Alexandria known, as well by instruments of music, in and the other freemen of that city, and congreat cities, as by the rounds of the watchmen, firmed the Jews in the possession of their right who, with cries and small drums, give them of freedom, which they had enjoyed from the notice that a fourth part of the night is past. beginning, and every where maintained them Now, as these cries awaked those who had in the free exercise of their religion. But he slept all that quarter part of the night, it ap- would not permit them to hold any assemblies peared to them but as a moment." It is evi- at Rome. King Agrippa dying A. D. 44, the dent the ancient Jews knew, by some public emperor again reduced Judea into a province, notice, how the night watches passed away; and sent Cuspius Fadus to be governor. About but, whether they simply announced the ter- the same time the famine happened which is mination of the watch, or made use of trum- mentioned Acts xi, 28-30, and was foretold by pets, or other sonorous instruments, in making the Prophet Agabus. Claudius, in the ninth the proclamation, it may not be easy to deter-year of his reign, published an edict for exmine; and still less what kind of chronometers pelling all Jews out of Rome, Acts xviii, 2. the watchmen used. The probability is, that It is very probable that the Christians, who the watches were announced with the sound were at that time confounded with the Jews, of a trumpet; for the Prophet Ezekiel makes were banished likewise. it a part of the watchman's duty, at least in time of war, to blow the trumpet, and warn the people. The watchman, in a time of danger, seems to have taken his station in a tower, which was built over the gate of the city. The fortified cities in Canaan, as in some other countries, were commonly strengthened with a citadel, to which the inhabitants fled when they found it impossible to defend the place. The whole inhabitants of Thebez, unable to resist the repeated and furious assaults 2. CLAUDIUS FELIX, successor of Cumanus in the government of Judea. Felix found means to solicit and engage Drusilla, sister of Agrippa the Younger, to leave her husband Azizus, king of the Emessenians, and to marry him, A. D. 53. Felix sent to Rome Eleazar, son of Dinæus, captain of a band of robbers, who had committed great ravages in Palestine; he procured the death of Jonathan, the high priest, who sometimes freely represented to him his duty; he defeated a body of three |