82 SCRIPTURE NATURAL HISTORY. 



in the next chapter : They that sanctify and purify themselves in 

 the gardens behind one tree in the midst, eating swine's flesh, and 

 the abomination, and the mouse, shall be consumed together, saith 

 the Lord,' ch. Ixyi. 17. 



In Matthew vii. 6, we have an injunction, which, as it stands in 

 the English version, requires exposition : ' Give not that which is 

 holy unto the dogs, neither 'cast ye your pearls before swine, lest 

 they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.' 

 As this passage is now read, both the malignant acts are most im- 

 properly referred to the swine. Dr. A. Clarke has restored the 

 proper sense by transposing the lines, and bishop Jebb, availing 

 himself of the hint, has shown the passage to be one of those intro- 

 verted parallelisms which abound in the sacred writings. In the 

 corrected form it reads thus : 



Give not that which is holy to the dogs ; 



Neither cast your pearls before the swine ; 



Lest they trample them under their feet, 

 And turn about and rend you. 



Here the first line is related to the fourth, and the second to the 

 third ; and the sense becomes perfectly clear, on thus adjusting the 

 parallelism : 



Give not that which is holy to the dogs, 

 Lest they turn about and rend you ; 

 Neither cast your pearls before the swine, 

 Lest they trample them under their feet. 



The more dangerous act of imprudence, with its fatal result, is 

 placed first and last, so as to make and to leave the deepest practi- 

 cal impression. To cast pearls before swine, is to place the pure 

 and elevated morality of the gospel before sensual and besotted 

 wretches. 



To give that which is holy to the dogs, is to produce the deep 

 truths of Christianity before the malignant and profane, who will 

 not fail to add injury to neglect : who will not only hate the doc- 

 trine, but persecute the teacher. In either case, an indiscreet and 

 over-profluent zeal may do serious mischief to the cause of good- 

 ness ; but in the latter case, the injury will fall with heightened se- 

 verity, both on religion, and on religion's injudicious friends. The 

 warning, therefore, against the dogs, is emphatically placed at the 

 commencenient and the close. 



