Besides numerous Sermons, Orations, and Addresses, Dr. Worcester is the author of the following : Six Ser- mons on the Doctrine of Eternal Judgment (1800) : — Summary View of the Fitchburg Ecclesiastical A fairs (1802): — Discnuj-ses on the Covenant ^vith Abraham (Salem, 1805, 8vo): — Lettei'S on JJaptism to the Rev. Thomas Baldwin (1807): — Christian Psalmody (1814, 4 pts.) : — Three Letters to Dr. W. E. Channing (Bos- ton, 1815, 8vo). In some respects these L^etters are the greatest work of his life. They were occasioned by Channing's Reply to Jeremiah Evarts's Revieio of A mer- ican Unitarianism in the I'anoplist. The controversy eventuated in the doctrinal division of the Congrega- tional churches of Massachusetts. The PanojMst and Drs. Morse, Spring, and Worcester saved American Con- gregationalism from the advancing Unitarian tide: — Watts's Hymns and Selections (ibid. 1818). More than 300,000 have been circulated: — Sermons (posthumous, 1823, 8vo): — First Ten Reports of the American Board
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of Commissioners for Forevpi 3fissions (1810-20; rcpiib. 1834). His Li'llers to Dr. Chaiining in connection with tho Unitarian controversy, especially the last one, have been consitiered as almost unrivalled specimens of po- lemic theological discussion. His published Sermons are rich in evangelical thought, and logically and lumi- nously presented by K. Anderson, D.D., in tlie Memorial Volume of ike American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (1862), p. 114. Ol'his three ministerial brothers — Noah, Thomas, and Leonard — the two former were able writers on the Unitarian side. Ilis S(M1, the Rev. Samuel M., D.D., became an author of some re- pute. See Cong. Qnar. 18G2, p. 131-160 (by Dr. Clark) ; Sprague, Annals of the Amer. Pulpit, ii, 398 sq. ; Alli- bone, Diet, of Brit, and Amer. Auttiors, s. v. ; also Mis- sionary Herald, Aug. 1821 (by Evarts) ; Life and Labors of Dr. Worcester (Boston, 1852, 2 vols. 12mo), by his son ; N'orth A mer. Rev. April, 1862.
'WordsvT'orth, CuRisTonii-.n, D.D., an English clergyman, youngest brother of William Wordsworth, the poet, was born at Cockermouth, Cumberland. June 9, 1774. He was educated at Hawkeshead grammar- school and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated in 1796. He was elected fellow of Trinity College Oct. 1, 1798. He became domestic chaplain to Dr. Manners Sutton, archbishop of Canterbury; rector of Ashby and Obey-with-Thirne, Norfolk, in 1804; and dean of Bocking, Essex, May 30, 1808. He was ap- pointed rector of St. Mary's, Lambeth, Surrey, and of Sundridge, Kent, April 10, 1816; and soon after served as chaplain to the House of Commons. On July 26, 1820, he was installed master of Trinity College, Cam- bridge, and in the same year exchanged tlie livings of Lambeth and Sundridge for the rectory of Buxted, with Uckfield, in Sussex. He resigned the mastership of Trinity College in 1841, and thereafter resided at Bux- ted, where he died, Feb. 2, 1846. He published, Six Letters to Granville Sharp, Esq., i-especting his Remarls OH the Definitive Article in the Greek Text of the New Testament (1802) : — Ecclesiastical Biography (1810) : — Sennons on Various Subjects (1814): — Who Wrote EiKiot' BauiXiKi'i? and another work on the same sub- ject, in both of which he attributes it to king Charles I : — Christian Institutes (1836) : — and other works.
Worni'wood (i^2"P, laancih, of uncertain etymol- og}'; Sept. TTiKpta, xoX//, oSvi'}], and ca'ayici] ; Vulg. amaritudo, absinthium) is, doubtless, the correct transla- tion of the Heb. word, which occurs frequently in the Bible, and generally in a metaphorical sense, as in Deut. xxix, 18, where of the idolatrous Israelites it is said, "Lest there be among you a root that beareth worm- wood" (see also Prov. v, 4). In Jer. ix, 15; xxiii, 13; Lam. iii, 15, 19, wormwood is S3'mbolical of bitter calam- ity and sorrow. Unrighteous judges are said to "turn judgment to worrnwood" (Amos v, 7; so in vi, 12, " hemlock"). In like manner the name of the star, which, at the sound of the third angel's trumpet, fell upon the rivers, was called "Wormwood (_"A\plv^oQ ; Rev. viii, 11). The Orientals typified sorrows, cruelties, and calamities of auj' kind bj' plants of a poisonous or bitter nature. Some other plants have been ad- duced, as the colocyuth and the oleander, but without anything to support them ; while diiferent kinds •of arte- misia and of wormwood are proverbial for their bitterness, and often used in a figurative sense by ancient authors.
'•Parce, precor, lacerare tuum, nee amara paternis Adniiscere velis, ceu nielli ahsinthia, verbis"
(Paulin. ii'^j. ad Ausonium).
Celsius has no doubt that a species of artemisia, or wormwood, is intended: "Hanc plantam amaram in Judisa et Arabia copiose nascentcm, et interpretum auctoritate egregie suffultam, ipsani esse Ebrajoruni i"i;"5, pro indubitato habemus." That species of arte- misia are common in Syria and Palestine is well known, as all travellers mention their abundance in particular I
Cotnmon Wormwood {.irtamisia absinthium).
situations; but as many of them resemble each other very closely in properties, it is more difficult to deter- mine what particular species is meant. It is probable, indeed, that the name is used in a generic rather than a specific sense. A rtemisia is the botanical name of the genus of plants in which the different species of worm- woods are found. The plants of this genus are easily recognised by the multitude of fine divisions into which the leaves are usually separated, and the nmnerous clus- ters of small, round, drooping, greenish-^-ellow, or brown- ish flower-heads with which the branches are laden. It must be understood that our common wormwood (.47-te- misia absinthiunt) does not appear to exist in Palestine, and cannot, therefore, be that specially denoted by the scriptural term. Indeed, it is more tlian probable that the word is intended to apply to all the plants of this class that grew in Palestine, rather than to any one of them in particular. The examples of this genus that have been foinid in that country are — 1. Artemisia Ju- A/icfif, which, if a particular species be intended, is prob- ably the absinthiinn of Scripture. Rauwolf found it about Bethlehem, and Shaw in Arabia and the deserts of Numidia plentifully. This plant is erect and shrubby, ^vith a stem about eighteen inches high. Its taste is very bitter; and both the leaves and seeds are much used in East- ern medicine, and are reput- ed to be tonic, stomachic, and anthelmintic. 2. A rtemisia liomana, which was found by Hasselquist on Mount Tabor (p. 281). This species is her- baceous, erect, with a stem one or two feet high (higher when cultivated in gardens), and nearly upright branches. The \ V plant has a pleasantly aromat-