factories, enacts that no corpse shall be buried in any other stuff than what is made of sheep's wool, on pain of forfeiting 57., and an affidavit is directed to be made of such burying before a magistrate, or the officiating minister.

The learned Dr. Comber in his discourse upon interment says, among the Christians it hath always been the custom to turn the feet to the east, with the head to the west; that so they may be ready to meet the Lord, whom the ancients did believe would appear in the oriental part of heaven: or as Mr. Gregory believes, "that they might be in the posture of prayer, with their faces to the east, as soon as they were raised. It is certain," he adds, “that all nations had one certain way of placing the corpse; and we Christians, having so great antiquity for our custom, ought not out of singularity to alter it."

C.

CABBALA, or rather KABBALA, from the Hebrew, kibel, to receive by tradition; a word used to denote those oral traditions respecting the interpretation of the law, which many among the Jews pretend were originally communicated by revelation, and handed down from father to son without any interruption or alteration whatsoever. Hence it is also called the oral, to distinguish it from the Scripture, or written law. The Rabbins, or Cabbalists, that is, such as profess the study of the Cabbala, pretend that, by a combination of certain words, figures, and numbers, which they therefore look upon as sacred, they are enabled to explain all the appearances of nature, as well as the revealed and written law of God. The Jews, indeed, seem to have preferred these traditions to the Scriptures themselves, the meaning of which, by their forced and subtile interpretations, they had in many instances entirely perverted or rendered unintelligible.

• The dark and hidden science taught by the expounders of the Cabbala bears a strong resemblance to the oriental philosophy, or is rather the same philosophy accommodated to the Jewish nation. It is certain, indeed, that a considerable number of the Jews had imbibed the errors of the philosophers of the East, and that many of the Gnostrix sects were founded by them. Some of these held that the Creator of the world was a being different from the Supreme God, and that his dominion over the human race was to be destroyed upon the coming of the Messiah; thus maintaining a system not only full of errors in itself, but destructive of the very principles of Judaism.

According to Marmonides, the secrets of the Cabbala were revealed to Adam by an angel, who brought him a book, containing the mysteries of their recondite science. This book was lost at the Fall, but restored again upon the earnest prayer of our first parent; and being once more lost amidst the general corruption that preceded the Deluge, it was afterwards restored to Abraham. A particular revelation, however, was given on this subject to Moses, on Mount Sinai, where he is pretended to have been for three several periods of forty days. During the first of these he is said to have received the written law;

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to have been instructed in the Mishna during the second period, and in the mysteries of the Cabbala during the last. This mystical or traditionary law was considered as containing the complete explanation of that which was written; and as the meaning is always more valuable than the mere symbol, so this pretended explanation of the law by divine authority, was soon exalted above the law itself. The latter only was committed to writing; the explanation of this being intrusted to the memories of the priests and elders. This being again lost, however, during the Babylonish captivity, the Jews tell us was once more restored to Esdras, from whom it has been duly transmitted to the learned Rabbis of subsequent ages.

There seems to be two kinds of Cabbala; the one which may be termed natural, and the other artificial. The first were those traditions already alluded to, and which the Jews are so frequently charged by our Saviour as making use of instead of the law of God," teaching for doctrine the commandments of men." In this it cannot but be observed how closely they have been followed by the church of Rome, which, according to the Council of Trent, declare that the truth and discipline of the Catholic church are comprehended both in the sacred books and in the traditions, which have been received from the mouth of Jesus Christ, or of his apostles, and which have been preserved and transmitted to us by an uninterrupted chain and succession." The second, or artificial species of Cabbala, consists in drawing abstruse and mysterious significations from particular words or expressions in Scripture; and by combining the letters of which these are composed, in various manners, explanations are extracted altogether foreign to their natural import. Of this there are three kinds; the gematria, the notaricon, and the themurah. The gematria consists in interpreting words according to the arithmetical power of the letters of which they are composed. In the notaricon every letter of a word is considered as representing some other word in itself, and every word, therefore, a sentence. The themurah consists in making different transpositions or changes of the letters of any word, and thus forming new or other words. Some among the Jews have believed that Christ performed his miracles by the mysteries of the Cabbala.

A certain sort of magic, practised by some Christians, has also, but improperly, been called Cabbala. This consists in using passages of the Sacred Writings for certain magical operations, or in forming magical characters or figures with stars and talismans. See Allan's Modern Judaism, ch. v. and the Jewish Expositor for 1819, p. 401.

CABBALISTS, those among the Jews who profess the study of the Cabbala. This study principally consists in the fanciful combination of certain words, and the different letters of words, taken from the Holy Writings, by which it is pretended the true sense of the Scriptures may be ascertained. Indeed, according to the opinion of these learned doctors, there is not a word, letter, number, or particular accent in the written law, which does not carry some hidden meaning within it, and which a right understanding of this mysterious science can alone reveal. See the last article.

The Jews are divided into two sects--the Karraites, who, admitting nothing but the Sacred Writings themselves, reject the Talmud and every kind of tradition; and the Rabbinists, who receive the traditions of the ancients, as well as the Scriptures, and likewise follow the Talmud: hence they are also called Talmudists. These latter are further divided into pure Rabbinists, or those who explain the Scripture in its natural sense, but yet by the help of tradition; and Cabbalists, or those who suppose the Sacred Writings to contain certain secret and mystical significations, which are only to be discovered by the means above mentioned.

Although the mysteries of the Cabbala, as stated under that article, are pretended to have been delivered to Moses on Mount Sinai, there are no cabistical writings but what are manifestly subsequent to the destruction of the second temple. The most celebrated of these are the Sepher Jetsira, or Book of the Creation, and the Sepher Zohar, or Book of Spendour.

CADIZADELITES, a sect of Mahometans, who entertain notions similar to the ancient stoics, and who intermix with their notions of religion many of the true doctrines of Christianity. They always affect a peculiar gravity of manner, and avoid feasts and diversions of all sorts. They abstain not, however, from wine, but drink it even in the fast of the Ramazan. They honour and protect all Christians, and believe that Mahomet is the Holy Ghost.

CADRITES, a sort of Mahometan barefooted monks, whose chief peculiarity consists in spending one night in the week in a kind of worship, when they are accustomed to keep turning one another round, incessantly repeating the word hai, or living, thereby meaning to denote one of the attributes of the Deity. They esteem it improper either to cut their hair or to cover their heads; they have liberty, however, to leave their convent whenever they please, and to marry.

CELESTIANS, the followers of Cælestius, who was himself the first

and chief disciple of Pelagius. According to some writers, he was a native of Scotland or Ireland; according to others, of Campania in Italy. Having first taught his doctrines at Rome, where he had some time lived a monastic life, Cælestius settled at Carthage about the year 410, and there gained a great many disciples-more, says St. Austin, than could be well imagined. There, however, he was brought before a council, and accused of denying the original corruption of human nature, and the necessity of divine grace to enlighten the understanding and purify the heart-of maintaining that the sins of our first parents were imputed to them alone, and not to their posterity, from whose fall they derive no corruption whatsoever; that mankind are capable of themselves of repentance and amendment, and of arriving at the highest degree of piety and virtue by the exercise of their natural faculties and powers; and that, although external grace is necessary to excite their exertions, yet they have no need of the internal succours of the Divine Spirit. Neither confessing nor disowning these tenets, he was condemned as an obstinate and incorrigible heretic, and cut off from the communion of the church. Against this judgment Cælestius appealed to the see of Rome, and gave in a confession of faith. In this he avoided the absolute denial of the doctrine of original sin; but declaring in the clearest terms his doubts upon the subject, maintained that the belief of this doctrine was no article of the Catholic faith. This confession was approved of by Zosimus, the Pope, as truly Catholic. Cælestius, however, having been afterwards condemned to perpetual banishment by a decree of the Emperor Honorius, was summoned by Zosimus to appear and consent to anathematize the heretical doctrines which were imputed to him; and upon his taking no notice of the summons, the Pope condemned the confession of faith he had so shortly before approved, confirmed the sentence that had been passed upon him by the council of Carthage, and anathematized the doctrine both of Pelagius and Cælestius. The tenets and opinions of these monks were now so effectually suppressed by the edicts of councils and penal laws enacted by the emperors, that their followers, as a sect, were entirely put down before they had acquired any degree of vigour or consistency.-For a more particular account of the tenets of Cælestius and his followers, see article Pelagians; see also Bower's Hist. of the Popes, vol. i., Life of Zosimus.

CAIANISTS, the followers of Caianus, Bishop of Alexandria, who adopted the opinion of Julian, that from the peculiar nature of the Virgin's conception, the body of Christ became incorruptible. These were divided into