498 



Sl.MDOL. 



n.it ural object*. Every thing in nature was an 

 image and sign of tin- Dnt\ ; every nut ural pheno- 

 menon was regarded as divine. The priests, who 

 had advanced in intelligence beyond the great body 

 i'f the people, when they attempted to communicate 

 such ideas of the Deity as the people did not find 

 directly in nature, or to explain the laws of nature, 

 were obliged to use images to make themselves un- 

 derwood. These images were in part verbal, in 

 part addressed immediately to the senses. But, 

 however strikingly a symbol may embody an idea, 

 it is always attended with some uncertainty and 

 liability to various interpretations. The attributes 

 differ from the symbol in this circumstance, that 

 the former is only a peculiar sign, added to an image 

 for the sake of more perfect representation ; the 

 latter is independent and intelligible of itself : all 

 attributes are symbols, but all symbols are not at- 

 tributes. Though attributes are used to express 

 not only moral conceptions, but also actions and his- 

 torical facts, they still remain a kind of symbols, 

 expressive of the spirit and essential character of the 

 action or fact. Allegory always has an artificial la- 

 boured character : the symbol ought to be a natural 

 expression of an idea. It is not necessary that the 

 symbol should comply with the rules of art, and be 

 beautiful in itself; the chief thing required is, that 

 it should actually designate ideas in a lively man- 

 ner. Thus the forms in Indian and other mytho- 

 logies, often strange, and sometimes even disgust- 

 ing, are not less genuine symbols, than the harmoni- 

 ous and beautiful forms of the Greeks. In a nar- 

 rower sense, however, the images and conceptions 

 of Greek mythology and art have been called, in 

 modern times, symbolical, and contradistinguished 

 to the allegorical. In this case, symbolical means 

 rhiefly the perfect embodying of the spiritual in a 

 form entirely appropriate to the idea. The symbol 

 relates particularly to the highest ideas those of a 

 religious character. The idea may be more or less 

 perfectly apprehended, so that the same symbol 

 may convey very different notions to different per- 

 sons. Thus we find the same symbols which were 

 presented to the people in the rude forms of ancient 

 heathenism, and which the people but imperfectly 

 understood, preserved also in the most elevated 

 systems of philosophical religion, with their mean- 

 ing fully unveiled. The initiated fully understood 

 the symbol ; the people, who had perhaps lost its 

 original signification, required to have it explained 

 to them. The more a religion is confined within the 

 limits of the visible world, the more immediately 

 its doctrines are derived from the phenomena of na- 

 ture ; the richer is it in symbols ; whilst a revealed 

 religion, whose doctrines are addressed more direct- 

 ly to the intellect, and contain ideas beyond the 

 circle of the phenomena of nature, will become ne- 

 cessarily poorer in symbols, and richer in distinct 

 notions. Paganism, therefore, abounds so much 

 more in symbols than Judaism and Christianity. 

 Symbols are also the signs through which the 

 Deity is believed to reveal his will, or unveil futu- 

 rity, or manifest his power. Such signs may be 

 particular displays of the powers of nature, or voices, 

 prophetic words, and oracles. The word symbol 

 further received a particular application in the Greek 

 mysteries, which clothed their mysterious doctrines 

 in symbols and maxims, not only in order to veil 

 them from the uninitiated, but also to present them 

 to the initiated in the most expressive images. 

 And, as the initiated recognised each other by signs 

 and words, which were peculiar to the mysteries, 



and presupposed the knowledge of their meaning, 

 such signs were called also symbols. But as the use 

 of such signs recalled also the sacred obligation en- 

 tered into at the time of initiation, particularly that 

 of silence, and of living in a manner corresponding 

 to the doctrines of the mysteries, therefore a sacred 

 obligation, a vow, made to God, a fellow man, or a 

 society, was called r / u/5x, which term is also ap- 

 plied to the oath of soldiers, and to the watch-word 

 or sign by which those on the same side recognised 

 each other, or communicated something to one 

 another in a way unintelligible to the enemy. Sym- 

 bol also signified a token, by which those who had 

 given and received hospitable entertainment recog- 

 nised each other at a future time, or which was 

 given as a pledge of any contract or obligation. 



Christian Symbols. The various meanings of the 

 word symbol, all originating from one root, existed 

 already, as we have seen, before the Christian era, 

 and naturally found their application in the Chris- 

 tian church. There was already a sticred meaning 

 connected with the word; and opposed to paganism 

 as the first Christians were, and averse to receive 

 any thing of it into their church, yet a word of this 

 character would not appear objectionable to them. 

 Besides, the anxious fear of every thing which 

 savoured of paganism, had already considerably 

 diminished when the word symbol became general 

 among Christians. Christian teachers may even 

 have felt themselves called upon to show that they 

 also had their symbols, when the persons initiated 

 into the heathen mysteries often boldly opposed 

 their doctrines to those of the Christians, and 

 pointed to their mysterious symbols as means of 

 distinction and sanctification. The Christians also 

 treated their symbolic doctrines and rites as sanc- 

 tifying rites, constituting signs of recognition and 

 means of union among the members of their com- 

 munity, and separating them from the whole of 

 paganism and Judaism. They therefore called the 

 sacraments symbols, as visible signs of an invisible 

 salvation ; and not only signs, but, properly speak- 

 ing, pledges of this salvation, and of the divine 

 promises and grace. In this sense, baptism and 

 the Lord's supper, as the proper sacraments, are 

 called symbols, yet always with a sanctifying epi- 

 thet ; so also are the water of the fount, and the 

 bread and wine. Symbols, further, are all Christian 

 rites, all exercises of worship, as far as they are 

 considered necessary expressions of the ideas de- 

 signated by them. The sacraments and rites are 

 also symbols in the sense of signs of distinction ; 

 because every one who partakes in them, shows 

 thereby that he belongs to the Christian communi- 

 ty ; and even the mere sight of the sacraments was 

 originally prohibited to the unbaptized. These 

 symbols must be distinguished from the types, so 

 called, viz. the persons, rites, &c., of the Old 

 Testament, which prefigured what is told in the 

 New. Certain signs of the Christian church are 

 symbols in the proper sense of the word ; as the 

 sign of the cross, and the Virgin with the Child. 

 Besides these, there are the symbolic attributes, by 

 which artists distinguish the various evangelists, 

 saints, apostles, &c., in their representations ; e. g. 

 to Matthew is always added the man, to Mark the 

 lion, to Luke the ox, to John the eagle the four 

 creatures which appeared in the vision of Ezekiel. 

 The name of symbols is also given, in the Christian 

 church, to those doctrines, expressed in short for- 

 mulae, which are acknowledged by all Christians ; 

 therefore to the confessions, so called, which con- 



