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object of sense, nor subject to passion, but invisible, purely intelligible, and supremely intelligent; He is the universal Spirit that pervades and diffuses itself over all nature; all beings receive their life from Him; He is the one only God, who is not, as some are apt to imagine, seated above the world beyond the orb of the universe, but who is all in Himself; He sees all the beings who inhabit his immensity; He is the sole principle, the light of heaven, the Father of all; He produces everything; He orders and disposes everything; He is the reason, the life, and the motion of all beings." The above philosophers, we see, had perfectly correct ideas of God, and differed from the holy Patriarchs only in their not having been so blessed as they were, to obtain by the grace of God his supreme favor of communion, or revelation, by which he made his divine covenant with them, and gave them the assurance that He designed to be their God, and to be called in all generations, "The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob."

XVIII. If the religion of the Patriarchs and the heathen philosophers could be maintained in its purity in the hearts of all men, then the Mosaic revelation would have been unnecessary, and all men would have been true worshipers of God, even though they had not known His personality as revealed in the name ". But the generality of men have never been philosophers; and having no perceptions of the infinity of God, but merely of some of his attributes, they degenerated into Polytheism, and sunk gradually into three fatal errors; first in reducing the infinite names of divine attributes to a limited number; but here the guilt does not consist in adoring too many attributes, but too few; their second error was in worshiping each attribute as a separate God, though they well knew that all their gods were united in one first cause; and the third error was, the superstition of adoring many separate gods, not abstractedly and ideally, as incorporeal beings, but as incarnate gods, visible and tangible to their senses. This constitutes true idolatry in its most pernicious form, and is the neccessary consequence of the former two errors. Such is the true history of heathen idolatry. It began by worshiping God under the idea of an infinite plurality, though it had at the same time a perfect conviction of His unity. From a philosophical religion, the heathen degenerated into an inferior religion of paying their homage to a limited number of divine attributes, which they did not consider as gods, but as distinct and specified powers of one God; from this they proceeded to a more pernicious error of

representing to their minds God composed of several distinct and separate gods, or plurality in unity; and lastly, they sunk into the lowest depth of superstition, by incarnating many gods so as to have them present to their senses.

Thus the poetic power of the heathen soon peopled the world with a crowd of gods and goddesses, all clothed in bodies like children's dolls. But never could men fall into such absurd and degrading superstitions, after having been impressed with the idea of the true unity of the Godhead. When, however, they presented to their minds the Godhead as a plurality in unity, they were led to incarnate some of the gods which composed the unity, so as to make them present to their senses. The reason is very simple; for as long as there is only one infinite God, he can by no means become incarnate, so as to be confined or circumscribed within a given space (as everybody necessarily must be), since, in this case, the whole universe would become vacated and unoccupied by the Godhead; if He, for instance, should happen to be on earth, then would there be nobody at home in the heavens; or, if he should happen to be in the moon, then all shops must be closed on the earth; but if there be many gods (though in unity) some of them might as well make an excursion to some part of the earth, and live there in company of men, as all the business of the universe could be regulated by the other members of the firm.

XIX. In order to be enabled by the above remarks to understand some difficult passages in the Pentateuch and the Prophets, composing the Bible-which were never yet so explained as to meet the conviction of, and satisfy those who, with a sincere desire to worship the God of Jacob, have, nevertheless, been misled to adduce these passages in support of some errors contrary to the fundamental♦ doctrines of the Mosaic religion-we must once more digress from the main design, and expatiate upon a very profound subject, widely treated of in the writings of the most eminent philosophers, concerning the existence of whole material worlds, and all bodies known to us by means of our senses. The profound reasoning of the ancients led them clearly to the deduction, that the mind has no means of acquiring knowledge but by the instrumentality of the different. organs of sense; and all which it can learn from them is, merely changes effected in its consciousness, from which it is utterly impossible to determine anything of the bodies themselves, which are but remotely the sense-acting means. Thus, we commonly consider the

sensation of color to be produced by the sight of a colored body, whilst the body which promotes the sensation of heat is regarded as being possessed of something similar to the sensation; whereas, in reality, matter in itself is neither colored, nor hot, cold, aromatic, or flavored; but as such, it exists solely in the mind affected by means of the miraculous system of animal organization. And although our knowledge of nature is originated by material agency, yet all we know from it is what takes place in the mind excited in different states of consciousness or sensibility. By directing our eyes to the body, or by touching it, we erroneously impute to it qualities which are nothing else but effects produced in the mind. We know, for instance, our sensation of a stone, but as sensations are nothing stony, we have no means of knowing what a stone really is. Such is the conclusive opinion of the most acute philosophers, which will be more conspicuously evinced by the following authentic references.

XX. Aristotle taught that true philosophy has only matter of intelligence for its subject. For as the knowledge of externals is not immediate, nor acquired by the inind acting voluntarily; but in consequence of the mind being excited by the senses, so all we can know and reason and reflect on, is what is thus originated within ourselves, which from being neccessarily intellectual is not the knowledge of anything material. All we know is by means of the senses: but as these cannot receive material objects themselves, they receive their species as wax receives the form only of the seal. And as perception is only by and in the mind, the latter has nothing to perceive but sensations, which from being immaterial, have not even the semblance of the bodies by which they are caused.

Plato maintained, that the mind, in perceiving, is like a person in a dark cave, who sees not external bodies, but only their shadows on the walls, and on the ceiling within, by means of a small hole in front through which light enters; and that the sensations in which our perceptions consist can reside in the mind only. Yet we connect them with extension, solidity, and figure, and imagine that color is something spread over the surface of bodies.

Malebranche says, externals themselves are not perceived; it is a truth impossible to be contradicted, that we do not perceive objects. without us. The sun, the moon, and stars are by no means seen, because it is not likely that the soul should sally out of the body to contemplate those objects.

Descartes takes it for granted, that what we immediately perceive

must be either in the mind or in the brain. Sound, color, taste, and smell, are sensations in the mind, which, by the laws of union between soul and body, are raised on account of certain traces in the brain; these traces are in no wise like the things they represent, or by which they are caused; neither is perception one single act of the mind, but may be resolved into an effect produced by a series of causes.

Locke maintains, that the whole contents of the mind are derived from the senses. The knowledge we have of anything, except God and our own soul, we can have only by sensations; and the having an idea in the mind no more proves the existence of that thing externally, than the picture of a man evinces his being in existence, or than a vision of a dream is thereby a true history. It is, therefore, the receiving ideas from without which gives us the knowledge of other things, and makes us know that something does exist at the same time without us, although we, perhaps, neither know nor consider how it is.

(To be continued)

H. H.

GEMS OF THOUGHT.

No degree of knowledge attainable by man is able to set him above the want of hourly assistance.—Johnson.

I hate to see things done by halves. If it be right, do it boldly; if it be wrong, leave it undone.-Gilpin.

I never listen to calumnies, because if they are untrue I run the risk of being deceived, and if they be true, of hating persons not worth thinking about.-Montesquieu.

When a book raises your spirit, and inspires you with noble and courageous feelings, seek for no other rule to judge the work by; it is good, and made by a good workman.-Bruyère.

Fancy, when once brought into religion, knows not where to stop. It is like one of those fiends in old stories which any one could raise, but which, when raised, could never be kept within the magic circle.Whately.

ON THE BIBLICAL PRECEPTS WHICH RELATE TO

IDOLATRY.

TRANSLATED FROM THE "MORE NEVOCHIM" OF MAIMONIDES BY JAMES

TOWNLEY, D.D.

THE precepts of the second class* were evidently enjoined in order to preserve men from idolatry, and other false and heretical opinions of a similar tendency. Such are the precepts respecting jugglers, enchanters, astrologers, and magicians, diviners, pythonesses, or those who consult them, and others of the same cast.

A perusal of the books already noticed will fully evince that astrology or magic was formerly practiced by the Zabii and Chaldeans, and still more frequently by the Egyptians and Canaanites; and that not only they themselves believed, but that they also endeavored to 'persuade others that, by such arts, the most admirable operations of nature might be produced, relative both to individuals and whole provinces. But how can reason comprehend, or the understanding assent to the possibility of producing such effects by the means they adopt? As, for instance, when they gather a certain herb at a particular time, or take a certain and definite number of anything; or practice any other of their many similar superstitions. These I shall class under three heads.

The first includes those which relate to plants, animals, and metals. The second refers to the time and manner in which such works are to be performed. The third is formed of those which consist in human actions and gestures; as, leaping, clapping the hands, shouting, laughing, lying prostrate on the earth, burning something, producing a smoke, and lastly, pronouncing certain intelligible or unintelligible words. Such are the different kinds of magical operations.

Some of their magical operations, however, partook of all these; as when they said, Pluck such a leaf of such a herb, when the moon is in such a degree and position; or, Take the horn of such a beast, or a certain quantity of his sweat, or hair, or blood, when the sun is in the meridian, or in some other part of the heavens; or Take of such a metal, or of different metals, fuse them under such a constellation,

Referring to the fourteen classes into which Maimonides divided the precepts of the law.

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