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says to the Corinthians; the pagans have I gods many, and xupio, lords many: but to us christians there is but one and one xvμ*

7. The heathens understood, that the biblical writers used the terms, in the same sense, in which they theirselves used them, that is, in the general sense, which has been mentioned. Longinus considered Homer and Moses speaking of the same being, whom he calls θειον; δαιμονιον, δαιμονιας θεος, θεοσο This critic thought Moses's synonimous to Homer's Αιδωνευς, Ποσειδάων.

Let us now apply these remarks to the subject in hand, the divinity of Jesus Christ. We will suppose the revelation of St. John to fall into the hands of a pagan, and we will give him the first chapter to consider. Three things we select, 1. The circumstances attending the vision. 2. The titles given to the person, who appeared. 3. The foretelling of events, that were to happen.

1. The circumstances. The vision is introduced with a thunder-clap, called a voice of a great trumpet; Signa venisse Deum. The heathens introduced their deities in like manner. -Iterum atque iterum fragor intonat ingens.

-Troïus heros

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Agnovit sonitum, et divæ promissa parentis. § Jupiter was accounted the thunderer by excellence.[[ tavius dedicated a temple to him at Rome under that title.¶ And from the common notion that thunder indicated the presence of a God, Horace took occasion to pay this fine compliment to Augustus,

Cœlo tonantem credidimus Jovem
Regnare præsens divus habebitur
Augustus, adjectis Britannis

Imperio, gravibusque Persis, &c.*

The same may be said of the other circumstances, and a pagan, having read these circumstances, would naturally expect the descent TJ.

* 1 Cor. viii. † Long. Sub. sect. ix. Ovid. Metam. Lib. i. ́ Fab. vi. 1. 58. § Virg. Æneid. Lib. viii. 527, &c. || Cic. de Div. 2. ¶ Sueton. in Vit. Octav. 29. *Horat. Carm. Lib. iii. Ode 5.

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2. The titles given to the person, who appeared. The writer calls him o wy,* answering exactly to Plato's To ov,† the being, ailov anavlov, the cause of all things. The person appearing is called o wy, o my, o exoper, a being, who is, who was, who The pagans had applied similar titles to their deities, and had inscribed them on the portals of some of their temples.‡

is to come.

The writer calls the person appearing, ο Παντοκρατωρ, ο κυριος ; ο αρχών των βασιλεων της γης; το Α, και το Ως αρχη και τέλος, ο πρώτος και ο εσχελος 5 ο ξων εις τους αιώνας των αιώνων. By all which titles a pagan who had not been previously taught that he must not think so, would undoubtedly have understood that the writer was describing the descent of a god.

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3. The foretelling of events. ed the writer, Safov gans pretended to predict future events; but they distinguished between the foresight of an event, and the means, by which they obtained their foreknowledge of it.The latter, they thought, were the entrails of beasts, the flying of birds, and so on; the former they ascribed to God. Efficit in avibus divina mens, says Cicero; quod bellum susceptum sine consilio deorum est ?§ The same distinction was made by the Greeks. Socrates, and others, thought θεους δια του ων υ]α σημαίνειν. || To these remarks we might add another on the symbols, that are mentioned, such as the KEYS, αδου του και του θανατου ; which the pagans had assigned to Pluto,¶ or Hades, TE GEOs, El Saμwy, says Plutarch, &c. but the former are sufficient to prove that a pagan must have understood the writer as speaking of a God. I do not ask the reader to grant that Jesus is hereby proved to be the supreme God; I only ask him to allow, that a heathen would have thought St. John was speaking of a nature more than human, a celestial God, a terrestrial god, a demon, a deified hero, if he will; and this being granted, which cannot be denied, I reason thus. The writer was inspired, and he expressed his idea in terms the best

He, who appeared commandThe paμελλει γίνεοθαι μελα παυλα.

*Rev. i. 8. † In Timæo et Epist. ii. 5. Euseb. Prepar. xi. 10. Plut. de Iside et Osiride. § De divinatione. | Zenoph. Memorab.

i. 1. Diodor. Sic. Lib. v.

known, and the most proper to convey his own meaning. A heathen, who had an obscure idea of God, taking the terms in their unforced sense, received from them an idea of a deity. Jesus is therefore a deity of some class. If Jesus be a deity at all, he is the one Supreme God, for the writer held the unity of God, and intended to refine the ideas of the heathen, to collect them into one, and to give him that one as a true image of Jesus Christ the Archetype.

In vain, after these reflections, does one critic prefer one ancient reading before many other ancient readings;* in vain does another change λεσαν] into λέσαντος;t or λεσαν] into Avσay;‡ in vain does a third complain of solecisms ;§ our reflections stand independent on them; they arise from the face of the passage; and our idea is a general effect produced by a combination of terms, which all allow to be the original writing of the apostle. It signifies nothing to say, St. John did not mean to describe the supreme God by these names; the ascription of them to Jesus can never be justified, if Jesus be, as some say, a mere man, for the language is nothing less than a snare to entangle men in idolatry. The writer ought not to have given even a shadow of a pretence for mistaking a man for god. That severe critic, Le Clerc, has granted what I ask; Græci JELO seu JEOV vocabant PRÆSTANTIOREM NATURAM HUMANA. I ask no more at present.

Page 15. Compare the style of the new Testament with the state of the Jews at the time of its publication. To illustrate this article we make the following remarks.

1. The Jews emigrated from Egypt under the conduct of Moses. Jewish and heathen historians both affirm this emi

gration¶.

2. The Jews worshipped the one living and true God. Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord.* Judæi mente sola,

* Rev. Mr. Lindsey's Apology, p. 130. † Ibid. Dr. Mill, whose criticism is proved to be futile by Blackwall, Sac. Classics, vol. ii. § Vid. Poli Synopsis in Apoc. i. 5, 6. where Erasmus and others are refuted on this article. || Clerici ars Crit. p. 2. s. 1. c. 3. Justini Hist. xxxvi. 2. * Deut. vi. 4.

unum que numen intelligunt. Profanos, qui deum imagines mortalibus materiis, in species hominum effingant. Summum illud et eternum, neque mutabile, neque interiturum.*

Nil præter nubes, et cœli numen adorant.†

Juvenal either alludes to the pillar of a cloud in the Jewish history, or borrows a piece of ridicule of Aristophanes. †

3. Some of the Jewish nation had extraordinary revelations of their God. The Jews pretended to these, and the heathens durst not deny them. Nihil divini juris humani que ei (i. e. Josepho.) incognitum videbatur; adeo ut etiam sterilitatem agrorum ante multos annos provideret, perisset que omnis Egyptus fame, nisi monitu ejus rex edicto servari per multos annos fruges jussisset; tantaque experimenta ejus fuerunt, ut non ab homine, sed a deo responsa dari viderentur. Filius ejus Moses fuit, quem præter paternæ scientix hereditatem etiam formæ pulchritudo commendabat.§

4. Moses committed his ideas of God and religion to writing. Moses, quo sibi in posterum gentem firmaret, novos ritus, contrariosque ceteris mortalibus indidit. ||

Tradidit arcano quodcunque volumine Moses.¶

5. The Mosaic code of laws, including the genealogies of the familes in the kingdom, the laws of the state, the ceremo→ nies of religion, and several other articles of constant use to the whole body of the nation, was preserved with the utmost care by the Jews. The book was their philosophy, their divinity, their history, their policy, their all; and they paid an attention to it corresponding to its importance. Hi ritus, quoquo modo inducti, antiquitate defenduntur; cætera instituta sinistra, fœda, pravitate valuere.*

Quidem sortiti metuentem sabbata patrem,
Nil præter nubes, et cœli numen adorant;
Nec distare putant humana carne suillam,
Qua pater abstinuit: mox et præputia ponunt:
Romanas autem soliti contemnere leges,
Judaicum ediscunt, et servant ac metuunt jus,

* Tacit. Hist. v. 5. † Juven. Sat. xiv. 97. From the comedy of the clouds. § Just. Hist. xxxvi. 2. | Tacit. Hist. v. 4. ¶ Juven. Sat. xiv. 102. * Tacit. Hist. v. 5.

Tradidit arcano quodcunque volumine Moses.* Eosdem reges et sacerdotes haberent; quorum justitia religione permixta, incredibile quantum coaluere.†

6. The inspired writings of the Jews are come down to us free from any mistakes, that affect their general meaning. "A great number of various readings, interpolations, luxations, omissions, transpositions, and the like, have crept into the text; but they are all of such a nature, as neither to affect the essentials of religion, nor the authenticity of the christian revelation."

7. The Supreme Being, although he is described in the Jewish scriptures by several names, which, being vague and indeterminate, are applied to inferior natures, is yet described by one name, which is incommunicable to creatures; and those names, which we call vague, are rendered so distinct by the construction of the passages, in which they occur, that there is no danger of mistaking their meaning. The number of these names is ten.§

8. The name JEHOVAH, which the Jews call the ineffable, incommunicable name of God, was a name, which, agreeably to the authoritative claim of God, || was never given to creatures. The Jews respected this name even to superstition; they never pronounced it; they always wrote another name instead of it; they denounced terrible anathemas against all, who should venture to utter it; they even believed, that the angels were not allowed to sound it; they preserved the name entire to God, and generally called it paypalov, the name of four letters. The heathens adopted their language, and swore by τον τελρακίυν.

*

9. The Jews reasoned, that as the names , and nbx, no where occurred in precepts for sacrificing: but, on the contrary, the incommunicable name [nn] was invariably inser

* Juven. Sat. ubi supra. † Just. ubi supra. Grot. de Veritat, Rel. Christ. i. 14. Dissert. on the canons necessary for the right and accurate Interp. of the New Test. p. 67. 68. Clerici Ars Crit. Passim. Hieron. Epist, 136 ad Marcel. || Exod. iii. 13, &c. ¶ Drus. de Nom. Tetrag. cap. x. Joseph. Antiq. ii. 5. * Pythag. Aur. Carm. Selden de Diis Syris. Syntag. ii. cap. i.

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