age.

mourning, and soothes the troubled || chamber of the Blessed Virgin, in mind; it prepares us for all, sustains us which she was born, and brought up in all, sanctifies us by all, and delivers || her son Jesus till he was twelve years of us from all. Finally, it will bless old age: we shall look back with pleasure on some instances of usefulness; to some poor traveller, to whom we have been a refreshing stream; some deluded wanderer we guided into the path of peace. We shall look forward, and see the God who has guided us with his counsel, and be enabled to say, ' Hence forth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them that love his appearing."" Jay's Ser. vol. i. ser. 5; Jennings's, Evans's Doddridge's, Jerment's and Thornton's Sermons to Young People; Erysons Address to Youth.

PILGRIM, one who travels through foreign countries to visit holy places, and to pay his devotion to the relics of dead saints. The word is formed from the Flemish pelgrim, or Italian, pelegrino, which signifies the same; and those originally from the Latin peregri- || nus, a stranger or traveller.

In almost every country where popery has been established, prilgrimages have been common. In England, the shrine of St. Thomas-a-Becket was the chief resort of the pious and in Scotland, St. Andrews, where, as tradition informs us, was deposited a leg of the holy apostle. In Ireland they have been continued even down to modern times; for from the beginning of May till the middle of August every year. crowds of popish penitents from all parts of that country resort to an island near the centre of the Lough Fin, or White Lake, in the county of Donegal, to the amount of 3000 or 4000. These are mostly of the poorer sort, and many of them are proxies, for those who are richer; some of whom, however, together with some of the priests and bishops on occasion, make their appearance there. When the pilgrim comes within sight of the holy lake, he must uncover his hands and feet, and thus walk to the water side, and is taken to PILGRIMAGE, a kind of religious the island for-sixpence. Here there are discipline, which consists in taking a two chapels and fifteen other houses; journey to some holy place, in order to to which are added confessionals so conadore the relics of some deceased saint. trived, that the priest cannot see the Pilgrimages began to be made about the person confessing. The penance vamiddle ages of the church, but they ries according to the circumstances of were most in vogue after the end of the the penitent; during the continuance of eleventh century, when every one was which (which is sometimes three, six, for visiting places of devotion, not ex- or nine days) he subsists on oatmeal, cepting kings and princes; and even sometimes made into bread. He trabishops made no difficulty of being ab- verses sharp stones on his bare knees or sent from their churches on the same feet, and goes through a variety of other account. The places most visited were forms, paying sixpence at every differJerusalem, Rome, Tours, and Compos-ent confession. When all is over the tella. As to the latter place, we find that in the year 1428, under the reign|| of Henry VI, abundance of licences were granted by the crown of England to captains of English ships, for carrying numbers of devout persons thither to the shrine of St. James's; provided, however, that those pilgrims should first take an oath not to take any thing prejudicial to England, nor to reveal any of its secrets, nor to carry out with them any more gold or silver than what would There are, however, it is said, other be sufficient for their reasonable ex- parts of Ireland sacred to extraordinary penses. In this year there went thither worship and pilgrimage; and the numfrom England on the said pilgrimage|ber of holy wells, and miraculous cures, the following number of persons: from London 280, Bristol 200, Weymouth 122, Dartmouth 90, Yarmouth 60, Jersey 60, Plymouth 40, Exeter 30, Poole 24, Ipswich 20; in all, 926 persons. Of late years the greatest numbers have resorted to Loretto, in order tu visit the

priest bores a gimblet hole through the top of the pilgrim's staff, in which he fastens a cross peg; gives him as many holy pebbles out of the lake as he cares to carry away, for amulets to be presented to his friends, and so dismisses him an object of veneration to all other Papists not thus initiated; who no sooner see the pilgrim's cross in his hands, than they kneel down to get his blessing.

&c. produced by them are very great. That such things should exist in this enlightened age, and in a protestant country, is indeed strange; but our wonder ceases when we reflect it is among the lowest, and perhaps the worst of the people. Pilgrimage, how

The pilgrims being arrived at Mecca, immediately visit the temple, and then enter on the performance of the prescribed ceremonies, which consist chiefly in going in procession round the Caaba, in running between the mounts Safa and Meriva, in making the station on mount Arafat, and slaying the victims and shaving their heads in the valley of Mina.

ever, is not peculiar to Roman catholic || and to apply his whole attention to the countries. The Mahometans place a good work he is engaged in. great part of their religion in it. Mecca is the grand place to which they go; and this pilgrimage is so necessary a point of practice, that, according to a tradition of Mahomet, he who dies without performing it, may as well die a Jew or a Christian; and the same is expressly commanded in the Koran. What is principally reverenced in this place, and gives sanctity to the whole, is a square stone building, called In compassing the Caaba, which they the Caaba. Before the time of Ma- do seven times, beginning at the corner homet this temple was a place of wor where the black stone is fixed, they use ship for the idolatrous Arabs, and is a short quick pace the first three times said to have contained no less than three they go round it, and a grave ordinary hundred and sixty different images, pace the four last; which it is said is equalling in number the days of the ordered by Mahomet, that his followers Arabian year. They were all destroyed might show themselves strong and acby Mahomet, who sanctified the Caaba, tive, to cut off the hopes of the infidels, and appointed it to be the chief place of who gave out that the immoderate heats worship for all true believers. The of Medina had rendered them weak. Mussulmen pay so great a veneration to But the aforesaid quick pace they are it, that they believe a single sight of its not obliged to use every time they persacred walls, without any particular act form this piece of devotion but only at of devotion, is as meritorious in the sight || some particular times. So often as of God as the most careful discharge of they pass by the black stone, they either one's duty for the space of a whole kiss it, or touch it with their hand, and year, in any other temple. kiss that.

To this temple every Mahometan who has health and means sufficient, ought once, at least, in his life, to go on pilgrimage; nor are women excused from the performance of this duty. The pilgrims meet at different places near Mecca, according to the different parts from whence they come during the months of Shawal and Dhu'lkaada, being obliged to be there by the beginning of Dhu'lhajja; which month, as its name imports, is peculiarly set apart for the celebration of this solemnity.

The running between Safa and Meriva is also performed seven times, partly with a slow pace, and partly running; for they walk gravely till they come to a place between two pillars; and there they run, and afterwards walk again, sometimes looking back, and sometimes stopping, like one who had lost something to represent Hagar seeking water for her son; for the ceremony is said to be as ancient as her time.

On the ninth of Dhu'lhajja, after morning prayer, the pilgrims leave the valley of Mina, whither they come the day before, and proceed in a tumultuous ||and rushing manner to amount Arafat, where they stay to perform their devo

The men put on the Ibram, or sacred habit, which consists only of two woollen wrappers, one wrapped about the middle, and the other thrown over their shoulders, having their heads bare, andtions till sun-set; then they go to Moza kind of slippers which cover neither dalifa, an oratory between Arafat, and the heel nor the instep, and so enter the Mina, and there spend the night in sacred territory in their way to Mecca. prayer and reading the Koran. The While they have this habit on, they must next morning by day-break they visit neither hunt nor fowl (though they are Al Masher al Karam, or the sacred allowed to fish ;) which precept is so monument; and, departing thence bepunctually observed, that they will not fore sun-rise, haste by Batn Mohasser kill vermin if they find them on their to the valley of Mina, where they throw bodies: there are some noxious animals, seven stones at three marks or pillars, however, which they have permission in imitation of Abraham, who, meeting to kill during the pilgrimage; as kites, the devil in that place, and being by ravens, scorpions, mice, and dogs given him disturbed in his devotions, or temptto bite. During the pilgrimage, it be-ed to disobedience when he was going hoves a man to have a constant guard over his words and actions; to avoid all quarrelling or ill language, all converse with women, and all obscene discourse;

to sacrifice his son, was commanded by God to drive him away by throwing stones at him; though others pretend this rite to be as old as Adam, who also

put the devil to flight in the same place, || pleased, and then returned home to and by the same means. their callings.

PIOUS FRAUDS are those artifices and falsehoods made use of in propagating the truth, and endeavouring to promote the spiritual interests of mankind. These have been more particularly practised in the church of Rome, and considered not only as innocent, but commendable. Neither the term nor the thing signified, however, can be jus

The ceremony being over, on the same day, the tenth of Dhu'lhajja, the pilgrims slay their victims in the said valley of Mina, of which they and their friends eat part, and the rest is given to the poor. These victims must be either sheep, goats, kine, or camels; males, if of either of the two former kinds, and females if of either of the latter, and of a fit age. The sacrifices being over, theytified. The terms pious and fraud form shave their heads and cut their nails, a solecism; and the practice of doing burying them in the same place; after evil that good may come, is directly which the pilgrimage is looked on as opposite to the injunction of the sacred completed, though they again visit the Scriptures, Rom. iii. 8. Caaba, to take their leave of that sacred building.

PITY is generally defined to be the uneasiness we feel at the unhappiness of another, prompting us to compassionate them, with a desire of their relief.

God is said to pity them that fear him, as a father pitieth his children. The father, says Mr. Henry, pities his children that are weak in knowledge,

fallen, and helps them up again; when they have offended, and forgives them; when they arewronged, and rights them. Thus the Lord pitieth them that fear him. Ps. ciii. 13. See COMPASSION OF GOD.

Dr. Johnson gives us some observations on pilgrimage, which are so much to the purpose, that we shall here present them to the reader. "Pilgrimage, like many other acts of piety, may be reasonable or superstitious according to the principles upon which it is perform-and instructs them; pities them when ed. Long journeys in search of truth they are froward, and bears with them; are not commanded: truth, such as is pities them when they are sick,and comnecessary to the regulation of life, is al-forts them, Isa. lxvi. 13; when they are ways found where it is honestly sought, change of place is no natural cause of the increase of piety, for it inevitably produces dissipation of mind. Yet, since men go every day to view the fields where great actions have been performed, and return with stronger PLASTIC NATURE, an absurd docimpressions of the event, curiosity of the trine, which some have thus described. same kind may naturally dispose us to "It is an incorporeal created substance view that country whence our religion endued with a vegetative life, but not had its beginning. That the Supreme with sensation or thought; penetrating Being may be more easily propitiated the whole created universe, being coin one place than in other, is the dream extended with it; and, under God, of idle superstition; but that some moving matter, so as to produce the places may operate upon our own minds phænomena which cannot be solved by in an uncommon manner, is an opinion mechanical laws: active for ends unwhich hourly experience will justify, known to itself, not being expressly He who supposes that his vices may be conscious of its actions, and yet having more successfully combatted in Pales- an obscure idea of the action to be entine, will, perhaps, find himself mis-tered upon." To this it has been antaken; yet he may go thither without folly he who thinks they will be more freely pardoned, dishonours at once his reason and his religion." Johnson's Rasselas; Enc. Brit. Hume's Hist. of England. See CRUSADE.

swered, that, as the idea itself is most obscure, and, indeed, inconsistent, so the foundation of it is evidently weak. It is intended by this to avoid the inconveniency of subjecting God to the trouble of some changes in the created world, Poor Pilgrims, an order that started and the meanness of others. But it apup in the year 1500. They came out of pears, that, even upon this hypothesis, Italy into Germany bare-footed, and he would still be the author of them; bare-headed, feeding all the week, ex-besides. that to Omnipotence nothing is cept on Sundays, upon herbs and roots sprinkled with salt. They stayed not above twenty-four hours in a place. They went by couples begging from door to door. This penance they undertook voluntarily, some for three, others for five or seven years, as they

troublesome, nor those things mean, when considered as part of a system, which alone might appear to be so. Doddridge's Lect. lec, 37; Cudworth's Intellectual Syst. p. 149, 172; More's Immor. of the Soul, 1. iii. c. 12; Ray's Wisdom of God, p. 51, 52; Lord Mon

PLATONICS, NEW. See NEW PLATONICS.

PLEASURE the delight which arises in the mind from contemplation or enjoyment of something agreeable. See HAPPINESS.

PLENARY INSPIRATION. See INSPIRATION.

PLURALIST, one that holds more than one ecclesiastical benefice with cure of souls. Episcopalians contend there is no impropriety in a presbyter holding more than one ecclesiastical benefice. Others on the contrary, affirm that this practice is exactly the reverse of the primitive churches, as well as the instructions of the apostle, Tit. i. 5. Instead of a plurality of churches to one pastor, they say, we ought to have a plurality of pastors to one church, Acts, xiv. 23.

PNEUMATOLOGY, the doctrine of spiritual existence. See SOUL. POLONES FRATRES. See So

GINIANS.

boddo's Ancient Metaphysics; Young's || constitution of nature, and the appaEssay on the Powers and Mechanism rent design of the Deity, but produces of Nature. to the parties themselves, and to the public, the following bad effects: contests and jealousies amongst the wives of the same husband; distracted affec tions, or the loss of all affection in the husband himself; a voluptuousness in the rich which dissolves the vigour of their intellectual as well as active faculties, producing that indolence and imbecility, both of mind and body. which have long characterized the nations of the East; the abasement of one half of the human species, who, in coun tries where polygamy obtains, are degraded into instruments of physical pleasure to the other half; neglect of children; and the manifold and sometimes unnatural mischiefs which arise from a scarcity of women. To compensate for these evils, polygamy does not offer a single advantage. In the article of population, which it has been thought to promote, the community gain nothing (nothing, I mean, compared with a state in which marriage is nearly universal ;) for the question is not, whether oue POLYGAMY,the state of havingmore man will have more children by five or wives than one at once. Though this more wives than by one; but whether article, (like some others we have in- these five wives would not bear the serted,) cannot be considered as strictly same or a greater number of children theological, yet, as it is a subject of im- to five separate husbands. And as to portance to society, we shall here in the care of children when produced. troduce it. The circumstances of the and the sending of them into the world patriarchs living in polygamy, and their in situations in which they may be likely not being reproved for it, has given occa- to form and bring up families of their sion for some modern writers to suppose own, upon which the increase and sucthat it is not unlawful: but it is answer- cession of the human species in a great ed that the equality in the number of degree depend, this is less provided for males and females born into the world and less practicable, where twenty or intimates the intention of God that one thirty children are to be supported by women should be assigned to one man; the attention and fortunes of one father, "for (says Dr. Paley) if to one man than if they were divided into five or six be allowed an exclusive right to five or || families, to each of which were assign. more women, four or more men must || ed the industry and inheritance of two be deprived of the exclusive possession parents. Whether simultaneous polyof any; which could never be the order gamy was permitted by the law of Mointended. This equality, indeed, is not ses, seems doubtful, Deut. xvii. 16. quite exact. The number of male infants Deut. xxi. 15; but whether permitted exceeds that of females in the propor- or not, it was certainly practised by the tion of 19 to 18, or thereabouts; but Jewish patriarchs both before that law this excess provides for the greater and under it. The permission, if there consumption of males by war, seafaring, were any, might be like that of divorce, and other dangerous or unhealthy occupations. It seems also a significant indication of the divine will, that he at first created only one woman to one man. Had God intended polygamy for the species, it is probable he would have begun with it; especially as by giving to Adam more wives than one, the multiplication of the human race would have proceeded with a quicker progress. Polygamy not only violates the

for the hardness of their heart," in condescension to their established indulgencies, rather than from the general rectitude or propriety of the thing itself.

The state of manners in Judea had probably undergone a reformation in this respect before the time of Christ; for in the New Testament we meet with no trace or mention of any such practice being tolerated. For which reason, and because it was likewise forbidden S M