66

the fun's general heat, at his entrance into that Conftellation. 3. Chefil fignifying "chilled" the Conftellation Scorpio, when the earth's bofom is contracted by the Autumnal cold weather, commencing when the Sun entered into that Conftellation: And, 4. Mazaroth, fignifying Raging or Furious," the Conftellation Canis, prefiding over the fultry heats of Summer, which begin with the Heliacal Emerfion of Sirius, and last forty days, thence called "His Seafon" by Job; commonly the Dog days.

And that these were truly the Cardinal Conftellations, in Job's time(not Orion, the Pleiades, Arcturus and the Zodiac, as hitherto unkilfully fuppofed) may appear from the following Aftronomical argument, combined with the affumed date of Job's trial, B. C. 2338.

The Longitudes of all the fixt stars, on account of the Preceffion of the Equinoxes, are gradually increafing at the rate of 50 feconds in one year; 1 degree in 714 years; and 1 fign, or 30 degrees of the Ecliptic, in 2145 years. But in A. D. 1800, the longitude of Aldebaran, the Bull's Eye" or principal star in Taurus, was 2', 7° Eaft of the Vernal Interfection: And fince Job's time, 1800+23384138 years ago, the preceflion amounted to 1, 27° 53. Therefore the longitude of Aldebaran, was then only 9o, 7 Eaft: And confequently Taurus, the cardinal conftellation of Spring; as Pifces is at present.

In like manner, the longitude of Antares," the Scorpion's heart" A. D. 1800. was 8', 6o, 58'; or 2′, 6o, 58, Eaft of the autumnal intersection; but in the course of 4138 years, the preceffion has been, 1′, 27°, 58'; which would leave the diftance of Antares Eaft of the autumnal equinox, at the time of Job's trial, only 9°, 5': and confequently, Scorpio was then the cardinal conftellation of Autumn; as Virgo is at prefent.-For thefe accurate determinations of the prefent and ancient longitudes of Aldebaran, and Antares, I am indebted to the kindness and to the skill of the prefent excellent profeffor of aftronomy in the univerfity of Dublin, Mr. Brinkley.

And if, to this curious and critical coincidence of historical, chronological and aftronomical evidence converging to one common focus of illustration, from fources the most various and widely removed from each other; we add the positive argument of Job's longevity, (42, 13-16.) furviving his trial, no less than 140 years, during which, THE LORD bleffed him with "Seven fons" and "three daughters," to replace the fame number which he had loft before; after they were grown up and fettled "in their own houses"; (1,2-19) and who therefore could not have been much less than 140 years old at the time of his trial; which well accords with the standard of human life in Serug's age, who lived 230 years, and in Nahor's, who lived 208 years, according to the Septuagint computation. Gen. 11, 24— 25.-And alfo, the negative arguments, that Job could not have been later than Mofes, from the filence of the poem, touching the deftruction of the Egyptians in the Red Sea; nor even later than Abraham, from its filence touching the deftruction of Sodom; and furely both thefe judgements, (especially in his vicinity, and which therefore could not have been unknown to the writer, had he lived after them) would have contributed materially to illuftrate and improve the general argument of a SPECIAL PROVIDENCE: We may fafely conclude, ex abundanti, that the age, and the cardinal conftellations of Job, are rightly aligned; which have been hitherto defiderata in Sacred Chronology and aftronomy.*

See a judicious fummary of the various opinions ftill afloat among the learned, Vol. 11. Churchm. Mag. May 1802. 2. We

I i

2. We next find the fynonimous epithet by (derived alfo from by; "above" and rendered alfo by the Septuagint TG, "MOST HIGH, ufed in the adjacent country of Canaan, in Melchizedek and Abraham's days. bys, "GOD MOST HIGH". Gen. 14, 18. And among the Phenicians, the fame epithet prevailed; as we learn from Philo Biblius- -κατα τέτες γίνεται τις ΕΛΙΟΥΝ καλάμην among them there is a certain God, called ELIOUN." And in the Punic language (which was a daughter of the Phenician) ALON fignified God; and it is fo ufed plurally in the Panulus of Plautus; as the learned Scaliger and Bochart have judiciously interpreted the Punic expreflions Ythalonim Walunoth, (nubrioubens) "The Gods and Goddefjes." See Scal. De Emend. Temp. Fragment. p. 30. and Bochart vol. 1. p. 707.

EL) .אל שדי

3. THE ORACLE OF THE LORD (DABAR FAHOн) who appeared to Abraham, Gen. 15, 1. did afterwards, ftile himself 17, 1. SADI)"GOD, ALMIGHTY" or "ALLSUFFICIENT":for the Septuagint render, ', o Inavos "The Sufficient" in Job 31, 2 and 39, 32, Ruth 1, 20 Ezek. 1, 24. becaufe as St Paul finely explains, 2 Cor. 3, 5. Havons NOVEX TO EX "Our fufficiency is from God."-This establishes Salomon Jarchis, and the moft judicious grammarians etymology, confidering, as compounded of w, the abridgment of ws, "who" and ""fufficiency" in the abstract fenfe; or "fufficient" in the concrete.

And that this is the true meaning of, ", which also is found in Arabic, appears from its derivatives in the remote dialects of the west. The primitive Greeks, called their fupreme God As; its true root appearing in the oblique cafes, A-05, A-2, A-a. which oblique cafes, were afterwards retained, and attached to Zeus, when the nominative As, grew obfolete as it did in Hefod and Homer's days.

The Latins, by a groffer corruption of Patriarchal theology degraded Dis, into the name of their infernal God Pluto:

Noctes atque dies patet atri janua Ditis.

Virgil.

exhibiting in its oblique cafes Di-tis, Di-ti, Di-tem, its descent from '1. Di. As the name Pluto alfo derived from πλάτος, "wealth" well expreffed the meaning of the root.

But that the original application of Dis, even among the Latins, was to the GOD OF HEAVEN, appears from the poetical compound, Dis-piter; (evidently, from the Greek, Ais-nap, ftill preferved in the oblique cafe, Au Targi, by Hefiod and Homer) which all the editors of Horace, have unfkilfully metamorphorfed into Diespiter, quafi Diei pater; Od. I. 34, 5. -Namque Dicfpiter

Igni corufco nubila dividens

Plerumque; per purùm tonantes

[Nuper] egit equos volucremque currum.

כאביר

4. There are various other epithets combined with, as 13," "mighty," Deut. 10, 17, Ifa. 9, 6, or taken feparately, which fufficiently prove that the leading idea of the primitive names of God, was fuch as, 78, mighty," Gen. 49, 24. power, "As a mighty" one, If. 10, 13. whence perhaps by fyncope, 15, "mighty," Job. 31, touching the age of Yob; in Magees Elaborate Difquifition on attonement, 1801. Dublin. p. p. 321-347: who rightly conclude, that fob was earlier than Mafes.

25. and

25. and their plurals, DN Angels" Pf. 78, 25. or '', mighty" as waters, Ifa. 17, 12-whence were evidently derived the ancient Egyptian and Samothracian Gods, the "Caberi," rendered by Orpheus, Evovvats: by Varro, Divos potes. See Herodotus, B. 3, and Bochart, Vol. T. p. 394.

אלוה .II

o Auvarng, THE POTENTATE: 20 EOS GOD.

2. The term mbs, as well as its roots, is combined with the fame epithet, bynn, "From above", Job 31, 2.

"I have made a covenant for my eyes;

Why then should I think upon a Maid?

For what would be [my] fhare in GOD ABOVE*?

Or [my] inheritance in the ALMIGHTY ON HIGHT?

Is not deftruction referved for the wicked?

And estrangement [FROM GOD] for the workers of iniquity?"

How admirably and how awfully, has OUR LORD, commented on this curious fpecimen of patriarchal "Religion pure and undefiled," in his divine difcourfe on the mount, Matt. 5. 28-29.

2. mb, is substituted for 5. Thus in the paffage "Who is GOD fare THE LORD?" which occurs twice, 2 Sam. 22, 32, and Pf. 18, 31.; in the former place," GOD" is expreffed by 8; in the latter, by ms.

We may conclude therefore, that mb, is intenfitive, or a proper name of the true God, as in Ifa. 44, 8.

"Is there any GoD‡ befide ME?

I know not any"

s. And it is exprefsly contrafted with the Heathen Falfe Gods, ftiled ,"Almighties" Deut. 82, 17. (rendered " Devils", in our tranflation.) They facrificed to false Gods, and not to GoD§:

To Gods whom they knew not; to new-comers,

Whom your Fathers feared not:-Of the Rock that begat thee, Thou art unmindful! and haft forgotten THE GOD¶ that bare thee! Here again, bs (as corrected by 23 MSS. Kennicot instead of 5) and

are plainly fynonimous: and the plural, Dns, applied to the Heathen falfe Gods; like 'w, onby, &c. which in the fingular, had been originally appropriated to the true God, before the introduction of Idolatry, and Polytheism and as 2, an epithet of "THE GOD of Jucob" Gen. 48, 24. is rendered Auvarns, “ Potentate," by the Septuagint Verfion; which is applied 1 Tim. 6, 15. to "THE BLESSED and ONLY POTENTATE," it may not unreasonably be confidered as the most appropriate rendering of which is used no less than fifty two times in the purely Hebrew Scriptures, to denote the true God; and only five times mifapplied to exprefs a falfe God; as of the Affyrians, Chaldeans, Syrians, &c. 2 Chron. 32, 15. Habac. 1, 11. and Dan. 11, 37-38.

Who then can read without astonishment, mingled with pity and indignation, the following rath and moft unfounded affertion of Parkhurst

1

Heb. Lex. p. 23. "It may be doubted, whether s [rather mb] in the fingular, be ever in the Hebrew, (as diftinct from the Chaldee) used as a name for JEHOVAH the true God: I can find but two passages, namely Deut. 32, 17. and Dan. 11. 38. where it may seem to be fo applied." !!!. III. D's. 1. EOL, GODS; 2. EOS, GOD; 3. o Пavтongaтwp, oro μov Δεσποτης. THE OMNIPOTENT, or SOVEREIGN.

1. The plural, as is rendered ɛoz, "Gods," in a multitude of paffages, denoting, 1, the falfe Gods or Adols of the Heathen, as in the foregoing inftance, Deut. 32, 17. Exod. 22, 20. Jer. 10, 11. &c. &c. 2. Angels, as in Pf. 8, 6. 96, 8, &c. where the original, o'mbs, "Gods," is fo interpreted by the Ancient Verfions, and by Heb. 2, 9 and 1, 6, intimating the application of both paffages to JESUS CHRIST. "Thou haft made HIм a little lower than the Angels." [during his incarnation] "Worship HIM all ye Angels of GOD." 3. Where it denotes Judges or Magiftrates, confidered as the Delegates or Vicegerents of God, invested with the Authority and armed with his power. Rom. 18, 1-5. 1 Pet. 2, 13-17. as in the following paffages, Exod. 21, 6, and 22, 8. where 'ban, the emphatic plural, is rendered in both, s, "the Judges," by the Syriac and Chaldee Par. and by the Vulgate, "Judices;" and by the Arabic in both, "Judge"-deferting the Septuagint Verfion, its ufual guide; which renders, in the former paffage, Afоs тo κριτηριον τε Θε8, "to the tribunal of God:" and in the latter, EvaπIOV TE OE8, before God:" on which Parkhurst, mifled by Guffet, forms "his imagination" that, ps, did not fignify Ruben or Judges. Heb. Lex. p. 23. Whence the B. C. Feb. p. 150. has hazarded the unguarded affertion;—that "not a fingle unquestionable inftance is to be found in the whole Bible, of the application of the word to any fuch perfons."

,דיניא

Befides these two inftances ;-in which, ons, is plainly of the fame import with Pelilim, in the intermediate paffage, Exod. 21, 22; which the Syriac Verfion and Chaldee Paraph. (as in Job,) likewise render, "the Judges"-there is a third, in which its application is most unquestionable;-decided by the authority of JESUS CHRIST himself, in his admirable Argumentum ad hominem, addreffed to the Jews; who were going to ftone him for blafphemy; "becaufe" faid they, "Thou being a. Man, (avgwπos,) makeft thyself a God (cov): JESUS anfwered them, Is it not written in your law (Pf. 82, 6.) “ I faid ye are Gods, &c.?" If [then] He called them, [the Judges] Gods, to whom THE ORACLE OF GOD came; and the Scripture cannot be broken [or controverted. How] fay ye of HIM whom THE FATHER confecrated and sent forth into the world," Thou blafphemeft:" because I said "I am THE SON OF Gon?"-John, 10, 33–36. Surely if ons in the Pfalm cited, did not fignify the Judges of the Jewish Sanhedrim, invefted with the high privilege of expounding the divine oracles, and deciding, as divine Delegates, in cafes of confcience and criminal caufes, and giving counfel in ftate affairs, under the Theocracy; (which ftill fubfifted during the Regal State) OUR LORD's argument must be maimed and invalid: but it is complete and unanfwerable; rifing from their own conceflion in a lower instance,—in the cafe of ordinary mortals, ftiled Gods,-to himself, the eternal, and only genuine SON OF GOD;—and therefore a portion, intitled to the appellation of A GOD (905) in the ftricteft sense of the word. And indeed Parkhurst himself, admits that "in this laft text, (Pf. 82, 6.) the word, ons is applied to earthly magistrates, or judges."—And herightly observes, "that

it

it is only in a comparative or metaphorical fenfe ;-the prefixed article. 7, "as," or "like," being understood here ;"—as it is actually expressed in the latter claufe of the fentences, Pf. 82, 6.

"I faid, ye are Gods; even all ye, fons of the MOST HIGH:
But ye fhall die as Man; and fall, as one of the Princes."

And the cause of their punishment was before expreffed in the indignant interrogatory at the beginning of the Pfalm:

"How long will ye judge iniquitously, and accept the perfons of the wicked?"

2. That the plural, ons, and emphatically, pns, is in numberless paffages, taken in a fingular fenfe; and applied to THE ONLY TRUE GOD, is moft unquestionable, as in the very beginning of Genefis :-" God created the Heavens and the Earth;" where the fingular verb, 71 creavit decides the fingular import of the nominative ps. And this decides the fingular import likewife of the plural form, 78, "Thy Creator," Eccl. 12, 1, not, "thy Creators," according to Parkhurft's Trinitarian Myfticifm “His Maker." Pf. 149, 2, not, “his Makers :” both in defiance of all the verfions, ancient and modern.

;

,עשיו,and of

And thus, in that explicit declaration, or confeffion of faith: Deut. 4, 85: THE LORD is THE GOD; [there is] none else befide HIм:"where the emphatic term, pnn, ought to be rendered "THE GOD," as it is, more correctly, in the application of this paffage, in our tranflation, of 1 Kings, 18, 39, where the Ifraelites acknowledged the fuperiority of the TRUE GOD above Baal, by an animated repetition: THE LORD is THE GOD! THE LORD IS THE GOD!"-and not Baal, the idol of the Sidonians, or the intelligence fuppofed to refide in the fun. In both places, the pronouns, rendered "He," by our tranflators, by a well known idiom in the Hebrew language, frequently fupplies the place of the present tenfe of the verb fubftantive, "is" and by the fame analogy, the pronoun N, I, involves "am," in God's affertion of his fupremacy, Ifa. 45, 5. I AM THE LORD, and [there is] none else, befide Me [there is] no God;" in this paflage, the emphatic article, n, is clearly understood before pns, as in the parallel paffages, though not expreffed.. The application of pns, to THE MESSIAH, is alfo expreffed, P. 45, 6. Thy throne, O GOD, is for ever and ever." &c. And is clearly diftinét from its application to THE FATHER, in the next verfe: “ Therefore GOD, THY GOD, anointed thee with oil of gladness above thy fellows,' -as incontrovertibly established by the great mystagogue of the Hebrews, citing the Septuagint verfion of this paffage, to prove the divinity of JESUS CHRIST; fee my fourth letter, p. 9.-And it is unqueftionably applied alfo to THE SON, in Manoah's 'exclamation to his wife, after they had feen him vifibly afcend into Heaven in the flame of the facrifice, which, by his directions, they offered unto THE LORD. Judg. 13, 22.-" We shall furely die, because we have feen GOD! (ombs.)-They plainly understand Him to be THE ANGEL OF THE LORD," emphatically fo ftiled, as being ANGEL OF HIS PRESENCE," Exod. 33, 14, Ifa. 63, 9, or ANGEL OF THE COVENANT," Mal. 3, 1, who appeared to Mofes in the burning. bufh, Exod. 3, 2, and ftiled Himfelf" THE LORD," affuming the highest title of the Godhead, Exod. 6, 3.- Because "the name of THE LORD," was intimately vested in Him," Exod. 23, 21.-even under the patriarchal difpenfation, as THE ORACLE OF GOD, Gen. 15, 14 Rev.

THE

19, 13.