Touching

TOUCHING, Tangere, to take. Of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. That is Gen. iii. 3.to say, ye shall not take it, to eat of it. To touch a Woman, Non permisi ut tangeres eam: I did not suffer you to marry her. And St. Paul, Bonum est homini mulierem non tangere: It best for a Man to live in a State of Continence. Pollutum nolite tangere:Isai. lii. 11. Do not touch or eat any thing unclean. The touching of unclean things defiled those that were clean, and the touching of holy things defiled those that were unclean, or who were not qualified to touch them. See Levit. v. 2, 3. vi. 18, 27, &c. God forbids to build an Altar to him of such Stones as had been touched by an Iron Tool: De lapidibus quos ferrum non tetigit.a It was thought that an Iron Chissel communicated some kind of Impurity to them.

To touch, is also used for to punish, or to put to death. We shall know that it is not 1 Sam. vi. 9.his hand that smote us, that sent this Misfortune to us: Nolite tangere Christos Job. i. 11. Wisd. iii. 1.meos.¹ And in Job, Tange cuncta quæ possidet. And in Wisdom, Non tanget illos tormentum mortis. And elsewhere, Tetigit Wisd. xviii. 20.& justos tentatio mortis. Even the Just themselves, the Israelites, were struck with Death.

God touches the Heart of those to whom he inspires Sentiments of Conversion and Repentance, Jerem. iv. 18. 1 Sam. x. 26. God himself is touched with Repentance and Grief: Tactus dolore cordis intrinsecus:Genesis vi. 6. Or rather, he acts as if he really repented.

Jesus Christ upbraids the Pharisees with refusing so much as to touch with their Finger, those Burdens which they lay Luke xi. 46.upon others. And God says, that the wicked Israelites do not stay to be purified from their first Murders, before they commit fresh ones: Sanguis sanguinum tetigit.

To touch the Feet, is put for supplicating. See Exod. iv. 25. 2 Kings iv. 27. 37.

Read this article in its place on the printed pages