Country. Heaven is called a country in the Bi- ble, in allusion to Canaan. And it is a better country, as its inhabitants, privileges, and employments are far more excellent than any on earth (Heb. xi, 14, 16). It is a/or country, verj' distant from and unknown in our world (Matt, xxi, 37, and xxv, 14 ; Luke xix, 12). A state of apostasy from God, whether of men in gen- eral or of the Gentile world, is called a far country ; it is distant from that in which we ought to be ; in it we are ignorant of God, exposed to danger, and have none to pity or help us (Luke xv, 18). A state or place of gross ignorance and wickedness is called the region and shadow of death (Matt iv, 16).— Brown.
Coupling, r^t)^H, chobe'reth, a junction, of curtains (Exod. xxvi, 4, 10 ; xxxvi, 17), L q. D'lSinp, mocA- be'reth (Exod. xxvi, 4, 5, etc.) ; but niSaiir, meeha- beroth* , means wooden bracert (? girders) for fastening a building (2 Cbron. xxxiv, 11), or iron crampt for holding stones together (*' joinings," 1 Chron. xxii, 8).
Conrayer, Peter Francis, an eminent and lib- eral Roman Catholic divine, bom at Vernon, in Nor- mandy, in 1681, was a canon and librarian of St Gene- vieve, and a professor of theology and philosophy. .Having written a Defence of the Validity of EngUth Ordinationt (Brux. 1723, 2 vols. 8vo), he was so perse- cuted that he took refage in England in 1728, where he entered the English Church, obtained a pension, and died in 1776. He translated into French Sarpi's History of the Council of Trent, and Sleidan's History of the Reformation, and wrote several tracts. His Disputation on EngUeh Ordinations was republished at Oxford, 1844, 8vo. His edition of Sarpi is better than any other (Lond. 1786, 2 vols. fol.).
Cotixier. See Post.
Course (Ipjfupia, daily order, Luke i, 5, 8). See Abijah4.
Court, an open enclosure, applied in the A. Y. most commonly to the enclosures of the Tabernacle and the Temple. 1. The Hebrew word tovariably used for the former is *i2£n, chatser', ftvm 'n^H, to surround (Gesenius, Thes, H^, p. 512). (See, e. g., Exod. xxvii, 9 to xl, 88; Lev. vi, 16; Num. Ui, 26, etc.) The same word is also most frequently used for the "courts" of the Temple, as 1 Kings vi, 86; vii, 8;
COURT
540
COURT
zxiii, 12 ; 1 Chron. zxxiii, 5 ; Ps. zcii, 18, etc S«e Tabebmaclb; Tbmplb. The same word is Tery often employed for the enclosuree of the "villages*' of Palestine, and under the form of Hazer or Hazor (q. V.) frequently occurs in the names of places in the A. V. See Village. It also designates the court of a prison (Neh. iii, 25 ; Jer. xxxil, 2, etc.)f of a pri- vate house (2 Sam. xvii, 18), and of a palace (2 Kings zx, 4; Esth. i, 5, etc.). In Isa. xzziv, 19, "court for owls,'* the cognate ^*^2Cn, cAcUImV, is found. 2. In 2 Chron. iv, 9, and vi, 18, however, a different word is employed, apparently, for the above sacred places — orofrto, ^1*^19, osaroA^, from a root of similar mean- ing. This word also occurs in Ezek. zliii, 14, 17, 20 ; xlv, 19 (A. V. '' settle"), but apparently with refer- enoe to tiie ledge or ofRiet of the altar (q. v.) 8. In Amos vii, 13, where the Hebrew word is n*^2, heytk, a *' house," our translators, anxious to use a term applicable specially to a king's residence, have put ** court." 4. In the Apocrypha avXri is rend«ed "court" with respect to the Temple (1 Esdr. iz, 1 ; 1 Mace, iv, 88 ; ix, M), or the palace (1 Mace, zi, 46), which latter is expressed also (1 Mace, ziii, 40) by a periphrasis {rd ircpc tifiiav), 5. In the N. T. the word avXt) designates such an open court (as it is once ren- dered, Rev. xi, 2, referring to the temple ; elsewhere **haU" or "palace"); and /3a<ri\fia, a palace^ is once (Luke vii, 25) rendered "kings' courts." See Palace. The term TJIIJ, ta'vek (fully n^an •?]'in, middk of the hotue^ 1 Sam. iv, 6), also designates in Hebrew the quadrangular area in Eastern houses, denominated in the New Testament rb fiitrov^ the centre or "midst" (Luke V, 19). This court is sometimes paved with marble of various kinds, and in the centre there is usually a fountidn, if the situation of the place admits of it. The court is generally surrounded on all sides, but sometimes only on one side, with a cloister or cov- ered walk, called '^'0^'QJ musal/^ over which, if the house have more than one story, is a gallery of the same dimensions, supported by columns. Large com- panies were received into the court on particular occa- sions (Esth. i, 5 ; Luke v, 19). At such times, a large veil of thick cloth was extended by ropes over the whole of the court, in order to exclude the heat of the sun. This veil or curtain of the area may be that termed in the New Testament (Triyri, covering, or **roof " (Mark ii, 4; Luke vii, 6). See House.
Ck>art-yard of an Oriental House.
COURT, JuDiCLAL. Among the Jews, besides the Sanhedrim (q. v.), or great " council" (q. v.), there were lesser courts QrwiSpia^ Matt, z, 17 ; Mark ziii, 9), of which there were two at Jerusalem, and one in each town of Palestine. The constitution of these