Their _Salutations_ were testified either _by words_, or some _humble gesture of the body_. By _words_, and then these were the usual forms; _The Lord be with you_: or _The Lord bless you_, _Ruth. 2. 4._ From the last of these, _blessing_ is often taken in Scripture for _saluting_. If thou _meet_ any,[247] _bless_ him not, or if any _bless_ thee, answer him not again, saith _Elisha_ to _Gehazi_, _2 King. 4. 29._ The sense is, as our _English_ renders it, _Salute him not_. Sometimes they said, _Peace be unto thee_; _peace be upon thee_, _Go in peace_, and such like: _When ye come into an house salute the same; and if the house be worthy, let your peace come upon it, but if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you_, _Matth. 10. 12, 13._ By _gesture_; their _salutations_ were signified sometimes by _prostrating the whole body_; sometimes by _kissing the feet_, _Luke 7. 38._ commonly by an _ordinary kiss_.[248] _Moses_ went out to meet his father-in-law, and did obeysance, and _kissed him_, _Exod. 18. 7._ Moreover, _Joseph kissed_ all his Brethren, and wept upon them, _Gen. 45. 15._ This Saint _Paul_ calleth an _holy kiss_, _1 Cor. 16. 20._ S. _Peter_, a _kiss of charity_, _1 Pet. 5. 14._ _Tertullian_[249] calleth it _Osculum pacis_, _A kiss of peace_. These were _kisses_ which a _Cato_ might give, and a _Vestal_ receive: Of this sort the _Jews_ had three kinds;[250] _A kiss of salutation_,[251] which hath been specified by some of those former instances. _A kiss of valediction_:[252] Wherefore hast thou not suffered me to kiss my sons and my daughters, _Gen. 31. 28._ _A kiss of homage_;[253] the word signifieth a _kiss of state_ or _dignity_, but it was to testifie their _homage_, and acknowledgment of their _Kings_ Soveraignty. Then _Samuel_ took a Vial of Oyl, and poured it upon _Saul_’s head, and _kissed_ him, _1 Sam. 10. 1._ And unto this they refer that in the second _Psalm_, _Kiss the son, least he be angry_. These _salutions_, howsoever they were such as were used mutually, sometimes in their meetings abroad upon the way, yet were they such, as were used also in their entertainment, as clearly appeareth by many of those fore quoted examples.
[248] _Xenophon. de institut. Cyr. lib. 1. pag. 17. It. lib. 5. pag. 113._