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emblematical way of writing gave occasion to the Thebans and Ethiopians, who, in the days of Samuel, David, Solomon, and Rehoboam, conquered Egypt and the nations round about, and erected a great empire, to represent and signify their conquering kings and princes, not by writing down their names, but by making various hieroglyphical figures. As by painting Ammon with ram's horns, to signify the king who conquered Libya, a country abounding with sheep. His father Amosis with a scythe, to signify that king who conquered the Lower Egypt, a country abounding with corn. His son Osiris by an or, because he taught the conquered nations to plow with oxen. Bacchus with bull's horns, for the same reason; and with grapes, because he taught the nations to plant vines; and upon a tiger, because he subdued India. Orus, the son of Osiris, with a harp, to signify the prince who was eminently skilled on that instrument. Jupiter upon an eagle, to signify the sublimity of his dominion; and with a thunderbolt, to represent him a warrior. Venus in a chariot drawn with two doves, to represent her amorous and lustful. Neptune with a trident, to signify the commander of a fleet composed of three squadrons. Egeon, a giant with fifty heads and one hundred hands, to signify Neptune with his men in a ship of fifty oars. Thoth with a dog's head, and wings at his cap and feet, and a caduceus writhen about with two serpents, to signify a man of craft and an ambassador who reconciled two cou- • tending nations. Pan with a pipe and the legs of a goat, to signify a man delighted in piping and dancing; and Hercules with pillars and a club, because Sesostris set up pillars in all his conquests, and fought against the Libyans with clubs. Now, from this hieroglyphical way of writing, it came to pass, that, upon the division of Egypt into nomes by Sesostris, the great men of the kingdom, to whom the nomes were dedicated, were represented, in their sepulchres or temples of the nomes, by various hieroglyphics; as by an ox, a cat, a dog, a cebus, a goat, a lion, a scarabæus, an Ichneumon, a crocodile, a hippopotamus, an oxyrinchus, an ibis, a crow, a hawk, á leck, and were worshipped by the nomes in the shape of these creatures,. Idol-wor ship, Sir Isaac Newton's Chronology, p. 227, 228.

Mén, in a state of nature, whose subsistence was immediately to be supplied by the product of the earth, would be exact observers of what facilitated or retarded those supplies; so that, of course, the grand genial power of the system, that visible god, the sun, would be soon regarded by them as a most beneficent deity. The rest of the celestial orbs would, in proportion to their use and appearance, be regarded in the same light. And all antiquity concurs in asserting, that the first religious adoration paid to the Creature was the worship of heavenly bodies: this was followed by the worship of heroes, the second species. of Idolatry, to which succeeded the worship of brutes, which was the third species. Warb. Div. Leg. vol. ii. p. 296, &c. See Gods and Worship.

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The corruption of the HEBREW TEXT appears very evident from comparing Num. xxi. 28, 29, with Jerem. xlviii. 45, 46, each of which passages may be corrected from the other: (see the collation of the MSS. :) but still, if we read and apa in Numbers, it may afford a better sense. Thus: "For there is a fire gone out of Heshbon and a flame from the city of Sihon; it shall devour the city of Moab and burn the high places of Arnon." And again, in the next verse, un' and mobaa, thus; "Woe to thee, O Moab, the people of Chemosh is perished; for, his sons are given up to flight and his daughters to captivity unto Sihon, king of the Amorites." ་་་༄།༤།

Tacitus says that all the Germans worshipped HERTIUM; or mother Earth. Jackson's Chronol. vol. iii. p. 51.

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And Herthum, or Earth, is probably derived from ps, Aretz, or Eretz,', 'm

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Utilitas textus HEBRAICI scientia longe maxima ex hoc conspicitur; quod mysterio rum divinorum explicationem, ita piene ac perfecte, ac ex ipsarum originalium tabularum inspectione assequi nemo potest. Unde et necessaria est aliqua saltem ejus cognitio iis, qui eloquia divina aliis explicare tenentur. Quam absurdum enim est, ut legatus mandata regis sui non intelligat, sed interprete opus habeat? Nam ut viri docti verbis utar, "qui versiones, tantum norunt, aliorum oculis vident, et cum plebe in atriis stantes e longinquo sacra contuentur; qui vero ipsum textum originalem intelligit, cum sacerdotibus in sanctuarium admissus, omnium quæ in penetralibus aguntur, ipse testis est et arbiter."" Hinc, inquit Lutherus, et si exigua sit; mea linguæ Hebrææ notitia, cum omnibus tamen totius mundi Gazis non commutarem." Walton Prolegom. 3, sect. 28.

Jacobus Philippus Tomasinus, speaking of HUMAN SACRIFICES, has these words: "Hanc immanitatem humanarum hostiarum a Judæis antiquitus migrasse e pluribus sac. Scrip. locis patet. Hinc rex propheta de iis conqueritur. Ps. ev." Thes. Græc. Antiq. tom. It should be evi. v. 38. But, if he had considered this passage, at all, it is evident that the Jews borrowed this horrid practice from the Canaanites and the other idolatrous nations; for, it is expressly said, in v. 35, that they learned their works, i.e. the works of the heathen, amongst which was the horrid practice of sacrificing even their sons and their daughters, whom they offered unto the idols of Canaan and we read, in the 3d chap. of 2 Kings, that the king of Moab "took his eldest son, that should have reigned in his stead, and offered him for a burnt offering (to Chemosh, the god of the Moabites) upon the wall." And no doubt, as Menochius and others have observed, "Hoc fecit, ad impetrandum a Deo suo auxilium immo*latione rei charissimæ ;" and, from this principle, human sacrifices are practised at this very day; for, Turubuil, in his late voyages, remarks of the Otaheitans, that "There are few people in the world who carry their liberality to their gods to greater excess

than

than these people. They think nothing too good for their divinities: every calamity with which an Otaheitan is afflicted is considered the immediate effect of the vengeance of their gods; sickness, want, ill success in war, or the anger of their kings and chiefs, have no other origin than in some offence or neglect of their gods. Upon great solemnities, the chiefs of every district bring one or more human sacrifices; it was supposed that not less than from twelve to fifteen would be offered at the inauguration of Otoo." Vol. iii. p. 102, 103.

Parentum cadavera cum pecudibus cæsa convivis Gentiles convorant, qui non ita decesserint, ut escatiles fuerint, maledicta mors est. De Hibernia insulæ habitatoribus idem tradit Strabo, lib. iv.: "De hâc (Hibernia intellige) nihil certi habeo quod dicam, nisi quod incolæ ejus Britannis sunt magis agrestes, qui et humanis vescuntur carnibus et plurimum cibi vorant, et pro honesto ducunt parentum mortuorum corpora comedere." Vide etiam Strabo, lib. xi. See also Alexand. ab Alexan. fo. 58, p. 2. Thes. Græc. Antiq. tom. vii. p. 45, 46.

There are but four things which concur to make complete the whole state of our Lord Jesus Christ, his deity, his manhood, the conjunction of both, and the distinction of the one from the other being joined in one. Four principal HERESIES there are which have in those things withstood the truth. Arians, by bending themselves against the Deity of Christ; Apollinarians, by maiming and misinterpreting that which belongeth to his human nature; Nestorians, by renting Christ asunder and dividing him into two persons; the followers of Eutyches, by confounding in his person those natures which they should distinguish. Against these there have been four most famous antient general councils: the council of Nice to define against Arians; against Apollinarians, the council of Constantinople; the council of Ephesus against Nestorians; against Eutychians, the Chalcedon. council: in four words, ἀληθῶς, τελέως, ἀδιαιρέτως, ἀσυγχύτως, truly, perfectly, indivisibly, distinctly: the first applies to his being God; and the second to his being man; the third to his being of both one; and the fourth to his still containing in that one both; we may fully, by way of abridgement, comprise whatsoever antiquity hath at large handled, either in declaration of Christian belief or the refuta-tion of the aforesaid heresies. Within the compass of which four heads, I may truly affirm that all heresies, which touch but the person of Jesus Christ, (whether they have risen in these later days or in any age heretofore,) may be with great facility brought to confine themselves. Hooker's Eccles. Pol. book v. sect. 54.

With the greatest propriety we may believe HEAVEN and the HEAVENS to be (where in reality Sacred Writ leads us to conclude they are) in the sun and in the fixed stars; and we have reason to be persuaded that the sun is a habitation of glory and a place of bliss, and may very justly infer that there is no violent heat or fire on the surface of the sun beyond necessary vital heat, and such as properly appertains to the

glorified

glorified beings who dwell upon it. However, I ought to observe, that, if we venture to conclude that there is indeed a tabernacle or throne of God placed in the sun, we' should nevertheless be exceedingly cautious not to limit the idea of our blessed Lord's residence, in his glorified body, to that or to any other particular heaven. And considering, moreover, that, if the sun be our heaven and city above, still it is only one of those innumerable cities and mansions of Divine Glory in which are manifested thewonderful works of the all-wise and almighty Creator. One of the many mansions to which our Lord seemed to refer, John xiv. 2. King's Morsels of Criticism, p. 82, 618. Various expressions in Scripture do so uniformly coincide to convey unto us the idea of a dreadful interior cavity in the centre of the earth, answering, to the description in the Revelations of the avoces, or cavity without bottom, that it is hardly possito avoid the supposition of there being really such a place of confinement existing; especially as we have reason to conclude that such a configuration of our globe (which is a mere shell, every part whereof is a roof and every part also a bottom) may have. been effected, consistently with every philosophical principle we are acquainted with. And Lord King shews, that Tertullian, and Novatian, and Jerom, even declared the place of HELL to be a vastness in the body and depth of the earth and an abstruse profundity in its bowels; which was also consistent with the opinions of Irenæus and Damascen. King's Morsels of Criticism, p. 595, 597.

Which art in heaven implies in it, 1st, the Majesty of God and his dominion over all the creatures, Ps. ciii. 14; 2dly, his power, 2 Chron. xx. 6, Ps. cxv. 3; 3dly, his omniscience, Ps. xi. 4, 33, 13, 14, 15; 4thly, his holiness, Deut. xxvi. 15. Whitby. The session of Christ at God's right hand may be properly enough resolved into a literal sense. For, admitting the divine Majesty to be seated in heaven, in some sort of elevation, that may have a small resemblance of a mighty monarch sitting on his throne of state; (for in this manner St John, who by a door opened in heaven was admitted to the beatific vision, represents the King of Kings, Revel, c. iv.) though this imperial throne of God has neither right side nor left; yet, since our Saviour, who ascended in his natural body, had his right and left hand, as other bodies have, it will hence certainly follow, that he, sitting by the throne of God with his left hand next to the throne, may, in strict propriety of speech, without any figure, be said to sit on the right hand of God, or of the throne of God, which amounts to the same thing. And to this sense. I am the rather inclined, because we find St Paul, who had a glimpse at least, if not a perfect sight, of the heavenly glories, expressing himself, in this manner,, Heb. xii. 2. Stackhouse on Creed.

That there is a local heaven and hell is evident from that noted description of the judicial proceedings, Matt. xxv. 46; and that the abode of the wicked will be in the central part of the earth, and that the fiery vaults therein contained are now the prisons of apostate angels and reprobated spirits, is a probable conjecture from those words, Phil. i 10. Stackhouse on Creed, p. 498.

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Some have imagined that the souls of all good men, after their departure out of the body, are immediately conveyed into the highest heavens, are there admitted into the glorious presence of God and Christ, and enjoy the same happiness, in substance and degree, which they shall after the resurrection of the body, barely with this difference, that their bodies are not as yet partakers of this glory. But this opinion seems to vacate the necessity of a future judgement. But an opinion, which seems more consonant to the word of God, is, that the happiness of departed souls, in the degree of it, is less perfect before than after the resurrection; that, before it, they are not only freed from all care, grief, and pain, but, being delivered from all pollution and danger of sin, have their virtues much improved, and their happiness proportionably augmented, by a nearer prospect of the glory reserved for them at the last day; but that, after the resurrection, their happiness shall be vastly augmented,. not only by being glorified in body as well as spirit, but also by an increase of that bliss which before they enjoyed in less proportion during their abode in the receptacle for departed souls. Stackhouse on Creed.

That one sect of the methodists suppose that the elect cannot fail of salvation is evident from these words of RoWLAND HILL: "David (says he) stood as completely justified in the everlasting righteousness of Christ, at the time when he caused Uriah to be murdered, and was committing adultery with his wife, as he was in any part of his life. For all the sins of the elect, be they more or be they less, be they past, present, or to come, were for ever done away. So that every one of these elect stand spotless in the sight of God. Daubeny's Guide, &c. p. 81.

But in Mr Daubeny's Appendix, vol. i. Richard Hill, Esq. not Rowland Hill, is made the author of the foregoing expressions.

When they anointed the HIGH PRIEST, the figure of the Greek letter x, chi, was described on his forehead. Lewis's Heb. Antiq.

The sin against the HOLY GHOST consisted in the Pharisees, who were eye-witnesses of Christ's miracles, which plainly evidenced a divine power and presence accompanying him, ascribing them, most maliciously and unreasonably, to a diabolical combination. They were, in their consciences, assured that he wrought them by the power of the blessed spirit, and yet, before the people, insinuated his acting jointly with the devil. And herein appears the heinousness of their sin, that so outrageous were they in reviling every thing that gave any countenance to Christ, that they did not spare even God himself, but called him Beelzebub, spitefully defaming his most divine works as nothing else but diabolical impostures. And therefore Christ declares it absolutely unpardonable, because it proceeded from an incurable malicious disposition of mind, incapable of amendment; and that the Pharisees were arrived at such a degree -

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