• The perfection of the D. was a favourite thesis of 17th cent, orthodoxy as against the Socinians and Arminians, who declared that Christian ethics added three principles — abncKatio nostri, tolerantia crucis propter Christum, imitatio Christi. The orthodox view was that it did not require to be supplemented or corrected, but only properly intenTeted, to furnish the fuU Christian ideal (see Turretin, fheot. Elenc liut. Locus 11).
DECAPOLIS
DECISIUX
583
kept as a divine command or as a measure of Christian expediency and a dictate of Christian feel- ing (see Sabbath). The latter view, energetically maintained by Luther, and favoured in the Federal School of IJeformed theology, is most in harmonj' -n-ith the Pauline doctrines of law and Christian liberty. See Law.
LiTRRATURi. — Ewald, HUt. (tf Israel', Kuenen, Reiigum of Inxul\ L>eliler*8 OT 'Jhfviogj/ \ W. K. Smith, art. 'Decalogiie' In Eitcycl. Brit.9 ; Wellhausen, Composition (Us Hex. ; Driver, LOT; H. SchulU, OT Thf ologi/ iSmend, Lehrbxich der AT Religionggt*cMcht« ; Baentach, Dtia Bundesbuch \ Meisner, Vrr Drkalog ; SUde, Getch. Itraeti ; Kittsl, Hist, of Israel \ Dillmaiu). Exod. ; Driver, Deu/. ; Monteflore, Hibbert Led. • Harper, Deut. For the treatment of the D. in the old polemical divinity, reference may be made to F. Turretin, Institutio TheologioB ElencticcB', H. Grotius, Explicatio Itecatogi, and Oocceius, De Sabbato ; for homiletical treatment, to R. W. Dale, Tht Tm CommandmenU. W. P. PATERSON.
DEC&POLIS (Af«£xo\it), 'ten cities,' Mt 4*>, Mk 5*" 7". — A region of allied cities (see Pales- tine) E. of Jordan in Bashan, but including Beth- sbean W. of the river. Such leagues existed in other parts of the Roman Empire for purposes of trade and of defence. The mention of swine kept by the people of Decapolis suggests the presence of a Or. colony ; and the region had a Gr. -speaking population, mingled with natives, as early as the time of Herod the Great. The cities of Decapolis, according tp Pliny (HN v. IS), were Scythopolis {Bcis<in), Hippos {Siisieh), Gadara (Umm Keis), Pella (FliIiU), Philadelphia {'Ammdn), Gerasa (JercLsh), Dion {Adiin), Cunatha (Kanawdt), Dam- ascus, and Kaphana. The region thus included all Bashan and Gilead. In the Onomasticon (j.».) it is defined as the region round Hippos, Pella, and Gadara. (Cf. further, Schiirer, ilJP 11. i. 9-iff. ; G. A. Smith, Hist. Geog. 593 if.)
C. R. CONDER.
DECEASE.— In OT Is 26" only, 'they are deceased.' The Heb. is r^/)/iii'm ([:•!<;?•)), 'shades,' which RV translates ' they that are deceased ' in Job 26°, Ps 88">. See Rephaim. In NT 'decease' is naed as an intrans. vb. in Mt 22** ' the first, when he had married a wife, deceased ' (T(\tvrdu, ' come to an end,' used with dardrii!, Mt IS''). Cf. Fuller, Holt/ War (1639), HI. x. 132, 'Queen Sibyll who deceased of the plague.' 'The subst. is found Lk 9" ' his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem,' and 2 P 1" (both l^oSos, exodus, ' outgoing ' ; used of death also Wis 3' 7°, Sir 38"; cf. tfa-oSoj = ' entering into' the world, Ac 13"). J. Hastings.
DECEIT. — The misleading of another by word or leed, in which case it is equivalent to falsehood ;Pr 14*°, Hos 12') ; or the overreaching of another, as when a false balance is used. Every kind of wickedness, as a rule, involves deceit, since the just and hol^ must be assumed as a mask, in order to gain credit with men, and make the accomplish- ment of the evil design possible (Pr 12*" and 26"). D. shows itself not merely in isolated acts, but also as a settled habit of mind (Jer 23'^). It is so char- acteristic an element of evil that it is frequently nsed in Scripture as synonymous with it (Ps 119"", Jer 7"). W. MoKGAN.
DECEIVABLENESS
all d. of unrighteousness
-Only in 2 Th 2" ' With "(ItV 'deceit'). The ad i. ' deceivable ' also occurs only once, Sir 10" ' a u. seed.' The meaning is 'able to deceive,' 'deceitful'; and that is the u.sual meaning of the words, as 2 P 1" Tind. 'we followed not deceivable fables,' and Gouge (IB.'iS) on He 3" 'Sin prevails tlie more by the doceiveablenesse thereof.' But Milton uses the adj. in the sense of ' liable to be deceived' in Samson Agonistcs, 942, ' blind, and thereby deceiv- able.' J. Hastings.
DECENTLY. — 'Decent' and 'decently' have deteriorated with use. From Lat. decens, they expressed originally that which is becoming, as Latimer, \st Sorni. bef. Ediv. VI. (1647) 'God teacheth what honoure is decente for the kynge ' ; and generally that which, by being seemly, adds lustre, hence comely, handsome (cf. Lat. decus), as Pref. to Pr. Bk. (1549) 'this godly and decent Order of the ancient Fathers ' ; Bacon, Essays, p. 177, 'the Principall part of Beauty is in decent motion ' ; Milton, II Pens. 36 —
' And sable Btole of cypreaa lawn Over thy decent ehouldera drawn.'
Now, the meaning is no more than 'fair,' 'passable, as Darwin, Life, i. 151, ' If I keep decently well.' In AV ' decent ' does not occur, and ' decently ' only 1 Co 14'"' ' Let all things be done d. and in order,' for which all previous VSS have ' honestly,' after Vulg. kuneUe, Luther ehrlich{QiV. ei<rxwi>'w'i which occurs also Ro 13", 1 Th 4'^ where all Ene. VSS have 'honestly,' with 'decently' in AVm of Ro IS'"). J. Hastings.