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Observations on Pope's Universal Prayer

Verse 25.-Who changed the truth of GOD into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the CREATOR, who is blessed for ever. Amen. For this cause God gave them up-to vile affections, &c.

Verse 28.--And even as they did not like to retain GoD in their knowledge, GOD gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of GOD, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, cove nant-breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful.

Verse 32-Who, knowing the judgment of GOD, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.

If it be all one, whether a saint worship JEHOVAH, a savage worship Jove→→ and a sage worship Lord, every one may chuse what he will worship, or whether he will worship any being at all. But this is impossible, for if a man ac knowledges no superior, no Deity, of all idolators, he necessarily is the most idolatrous, he worships himself, and burns incense to his own godship.

If JEHOVAH, Jove and Lord be all one, or a matter of indifference which we chuse or refuse-how did Jehovah deal so severely with Solomon for going after Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Zidonians (1 Kings, xi. 5.) and after Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites. And verse 7, for building an high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, and a high place for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon, if no discrimination existed between the worshipping the true and false Gods?

If we add, Mr. Pope's-three gods, JEHOVAH, Jove and Lord, to the four now mentioned, viz. Ashtoreth, Milcom, Chemosh, Molech, to the thirty thousand gods of Greece, not forgetting the Saxon deities, from which the days of the week are called by their present English names—we shall have a round number; but I will select one, to be the subject of this essay, as his godship's character will tend to place Mr. Pope's couplets in their genuine colours, and to shew their infidel tendency :-viz.-CHEMOSH.—

With reverence and holy fear we think of the incomprehensible name of the true God-and forbear to make remarks upon the incomprehensible I AM; whilst we take full liberty with Chemosh and Mr. Pope's-Jove and Lord. As these names have an appropriate meaning, it may not be improper to ascertain what that is. Upon consulting our dictionaries, we find, that Jore or Jupiter, had Zeus for his name among the Greeks, derived from zeo to be hot-and hence by the addition of the word pater or father, the Latins called him Jupiter, by abridging zeus-peter; that is, the heat-giving father; hence he was considered as the anima mundi, that is, the soul of the world, the principle of heat, life, activity and vigour to all things.

Mr. Pope's Lord, by a similar etymology appears to have a similar charac ter or meaning. Plutarch informs us that the Persians worshipped the sun, under the Greek name KUROS, and the Hebrew names MELEK, the king, and BAAL, the ruler, regent or lord. These names imply authority; and kurios, in English, lord, comes from the verb kuro to exist; for it was á hea then tenet that the same was self-existent. In addition to these, we place CHEMOSH, whose etymology, character, &c. will not a little explain and confirm the above.

"All things are full of Jove," is a heathen maxim, universally believed. In Dryden's translation of Virgil's 4th Georgic, line 221, &c. we read thus: For God the whole created mass inspires;

Through heaven and earth and ocean's depth he throws
His influence round, and kindles as he goes.

Hence flocks and herds, and men and beasts and fowls
With breath are quicken'd, and attract their souls.

And again, Æneid. vi. line 724, &c.

Know first, that heaven and earth's compacted frame,
And flowing waters, and the starry flame,

And both the radiant lights, one common soul
Inspires, and feeds, and animates the whole;

A Picture of Religious Melancholy.
This active mind infus'd through all the space,
Unites and mingles with the mighty mass.
Hence men and beasts the breath of life obtain,
And birds of air and monsters of the main.
Th' ethereal vigour is in all the same,
And ev'ry soul is fill'd with equal flame.

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Could a Moabite have read these verses, he would, we suppose, have al lowed them to give no bad description of his god CHEMOSH; nor, on the same principles, could he have objected to the orthodox of Mr. Pope's creed, furnished him by the late Lord Bolinbroke, from the ancient sages of apostacy and materialism.

All are but parts of one stupendous whole,
Whose body Nature is, and God the soul;
That, chang'd thro' all, and yet in all the same,
Great in the earth, as in th' ethereal frame,
Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze,
Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees,
Lives through all life, extends through all extent,
Spreads undivided, operates unspent.

-POPE'S ESSAY.

Is it not shocking to see the beauties of language and poetry thus misapplied in dressing up the abomination of the Moabites, and in substituting CHEMOSH or the (PATER OMNIPOTENS fæcundis imbribus ÆTHER, &c.) ALMIGHTY FATHER ETHER of Virgil, in the place of JEHOVAH; or at best in confounding JEHOVAH with the fluid of the heavens, which is merely his creature and servant, and was designed to declare his glory and shew forth his handy work to man?- -Such, however, always has been, and ever will be the consequence of slighting divine revelation, and trusting in human imagination, whether our own or that of others.

Let Christians beware how they confound names with whose import they are not perfectly acquainted.JEHOVAH-Jove-or Lord are a strange mixture and if GOD gave up to a reprobate mind those persons in antient times, who worshipped other Gods than himself, let us take care, and even be jealous with a godly jealousy, lest we be imperceptibly drawn away from our allegiance to our GOD and SAVIOUR, either by poetry, philosophy, or the devices of man lying in wait to devour; and likewise be given up to a reprobate mind to work all uncleanness with greediness.-JEHOVAH is a GOD of purity, and without holiness no man can see and finally enjoy the glories of his presence-but CHEMOSH, or COMUS, the same as BAAL PHEGOR, required in his votaries retelling and drunkenness, lascivious and obscene songs, and every sort of impurity that could be devised.

We cannot here avoid remarking, and with regret we make the remark, that the death of the enterprizing Capt. Cook, appears to be a remarkable instance, in modern times, of the divine interposition and jealousy, that God will not suffer even a tacit acknowledgement of any other object of adoration, no, not even the appearance of such an acknowledgment. From the time that Capt. Cook permitted those Idolators of Owhyhee to initiate him into their religion, Providence seemed to frown upon him-a succession of cross accidents threatened him and the fatal day which proved his last, prepared to rise upon him, with every unauspicious omen.

In a subsequent number, some more remarks on this subject will be presented to the public; against which, it is hoped, their novelty will be no real objec

tion.

S.

A PICTURE OF RELIGIOUS MELANCHOLY.

RELIGIOUS MELANCHOLY is the daughter of Enthusiasm and Super

stition: She was nursed by her mother in the cell of a Dominican Convent, and her only food was bread and water. As the parents had no other view for the daughter than the inheritance of immortality, she was never instructed in human learning; for it was a maxim with them that ignorance is

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the mother of devotion, and that enlightened reason serves only to cavil against the impulse of Heaven. From her mother, Melancholy inherited gloominess and fear; and from her father disordered and unequal passions, flights, raptures, and reveries. She spent her days in mortification, and her nights in terror; for she was taught to believe that her devotion would be acceptable to God, in proportion as it was distressful to herself. From that persuasion she passed the greater part of her life in penal austerities, but as she was the child of Enthusiasm, she was sometimes visited with a gleam of fanatic joy, which shone through the gloom of her cell, and during these intervals, she asserted that she was in Heaven. These intervals, however, as they were too powerful for a mortal mind, were very short, and very rare; her exhausted spirits were afterwards reduced to the lowest languor; and she, who the former moment was exulting in the ecstacies of Heaven, was now aghast on the brink of hell.

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Such was the life of Religious Melancholy, 'till the benevolent Father of mercies, pitying her undeserved miseries, and weary of her preposterous devotion, delivered the wretch from that life which she had received in vain.

A SHORT VOCABULARY,

GIVING THE SIGNIFICATION OF SOME OLD ENGLISH WORDS.

REBUKE.

Concluded from page 77.

OT only severe reprehension, but any manner of hard or reproachful language, Psalm Ixix. ver. 21. Also it implies grace and sincere admonition, the same as reproof.

SIMPLE. Unmixed, plain, without any fraud or guile, or worldly policy like a child that hath no art or canning to keep itself, and therefore is liable to be oppressed and over-reached by crafty and designing men. It is gener ally used in a good sense in the Psalms and New-Testament, viz. for plain, undesigning men; as simpler doth among the Latins, when applied to the tempers of men. But, whereas such persons are liable to be drawn into evil by designing and wicked men, it denotes sometimes those persons, who by this means are betrayed into sin, as Psalm iv. and a fault committed through this unwary, unsuspecting temper, is called simpleness, Psalm lxix. ver. 5.

WHOLESOME. Safe, comfortable, healthful. We say wholesome food, air, law, counsel, &c. and mean the same as we do by the word salutary, Psalm xx. ver. 6.

WILINESS. Cunning, guile, wiles, Psalm x. ver. 2.

WORLD. Age, time, not the earth or universe only; thus in the doxology, world without end, that is, age or time without end or forever; the same as in the Latin sæcula sæculorum, that is, ages of ages; and in the Nicene Creed, before all worlds; that is, before all ages, or before time commenced. See Psalm xlv. ver. 18.

WORSHIP. Majesty, dignity, excellency, what deserves to be honoured, or is honoured that glory, excellency or power in God, to which we pay Divine honours or our devotions. And our Saxon ancestors used worthiness and worship as words of the same power and signification. The old translalation uses this word, Psalm iii. ver. 3. and Psalm xcvi. ver. 6. and elsewhere, in this sense. But although by worship we commonly mean that honour which belongs to God; yet it frequently signifies the honour which is due to man; and the old translation retains the word in this sense, when it says that God gives worship; that is, honour and dignity" to them who lead a godly life," Psalm lxxxiv. ver. 12. And in the last translation, this word is used in the same sense, St. Luke xiv. ver. 10. where it is said, that the humble guest shall have worship in the presence of those who sit at meat with him. Who can then wonder that in the matrimonial office, the husband is taught to worship his wife, that is, to pay her all due respect?-For no one ever understood more by that expression, unless he was blinded by ignorance or prejudice. There is then an honour, glory, worship, or dignity in the Divine nature; and so there is, or may be, in men also. We must pay honour, glory and worship to God, in the highest sense of the word; and in a subordinate degree to men, if we may believe our Bible, which teaches us, to render to God the things that are God's, and to men the things which belong to them.

GE

A succinct history of baptism.
SACRED CRITICISM.

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NENESIS chap. xviii. ver. 1 and 2.-The seeming ambiguity in the 2nd verse will be entirely removed, if the nouns be put before and after their, verbs, instead of the pronouns, thus-And Jehovah appeared unto Abraham, in the plains of Mamri; and Abraham sat in the tent door in the heat of the day. And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and lo! *THREE MEN tood by JEHOVAH: And when Abraham saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground.

Psalm lxxxiv. verse 3.Yea the sparrow hath found her an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young; even thine altars, ✪ Lord of Hosts, my king and my God.

This is the Bible translation-and that in the Prayer Book is nearly the same; but according to either, the sentence is extremely difficult to be explained to one's satisfaction. If we suppose that any bird would chuse to build a nest or lay her young upon either of the altars of the Lord;-upon that of burnt offer-' ngs, where the sacred fire was kept burning day and night, or upon the altar of incence; and that the officiating priests would suffer the altars to be de, filed by such guests, we shall but involve the subject in multiplied and insuperable difficulties:-nor will the application of the text as prophetic of the future and desolated condition of the Temple, remove the difficulties and proeure a fair and satisfactory explanation. When we consider the general ́import of the 84th psalm, and particularly the former part of it, as descriptive of David's vehement longing to attend the public worship of the Church from which he had for some time been driven, probably during Absalom's rebellion;-and to this add the consideration arising from our observing the natural affection of birds, and with how strong and anxious desire they long to return to their young, when absent from them; the following translation, sanctioned by Noldius' Concordance of the Hebrew particles, will appear altogether natural, and in fact, require no commentary.

Eren as the sparrow, saith he, i. e. with the same joy and delight as the sparrow findeth her house, and the swallow (or wild pigeon, De ROR) her nest, where she hath laid (SHETE) her young, so should I find thine altars, O Lord of Hosts, my King and my God.- -The justness and beauty of the simile em ployed by the Psalmist, and the correspondence of the text thus rendered, with the other parts of the psalm, will appear, we trust, obvious to the reader, and prove a satisfactory illustration of this portion of sacred scripture.

**He (Abraham) desired not only to adore, but to entertain JEHOVAH in TRINITY.". Legantine Canons at Cealclythes in Wales, A, D. 785. Johnson's Collection from the Saxon Cronicle, Can. 18.

With this the Abyssinian Creed accords, which is drawn up in the very terms of the Old Testament and evidently refers to the Cherubim.

In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen, "We believe in the Name of the Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Ghost; Who are one Lord and three Names, one Divinity and three Faces, though but one similitude; and are an equal conjunction in persons; equal (I say in Divinity; one Kingdom, one Throne, one Word, one Spirit, &c.?. See an account of the Abyssinian religion, by Zaga Zaba, Ambassador from the King of Ethiopia to the King of Pora, about the year 1355, from Geddes' Hist. p. 81.

A SUCCINCT HISTORY OF BAPTISM,

AS CELEBRATED BY THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. CHAP. 3d. Of the primitive form of Baptism; and of those who altered or corrupted it.

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HE form of words anciently used in baptism was expressive of every per THE son in the Trinity, according to our Lord's command. The author of the travels of St. Peter says, "Men are baptized under the appellation of the * triple mystery, and by invocating the name of the blessed Trinity."--Tertul lian refers this to the institution of Christ, "who, (says he) appointed bap.

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A succinct history of Baptism.

tism to be administered, not in the name of one, but three; Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Therefore we are immersed not once, but thrice;—once at the " mention of each name.” Cyprian derives this practice likewise from the same institution, and argues further against such heretics as baptized only in the name of Jesus Christ, from the same principle, that Christ called the nations to be baptized not into one person, but a complete and undivided Trinity. St. Augustine says, that baptism, in the name of each person in the Trinity, was the Catholic custom, down from the time of its institution by our Lord.

The Apostolic canons order evey bishop and presbyter, baptizing any other way than in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, to be deposed.Athanasius declares baptism administered in any other form to be void, and the person baptized to be uninitiated. Didimus of Alexandria, and Idacius Clarus assert that baptism to be imperfect and insufficient for the remission of sins, in which any person of the Trinity was omitted. Basil has a whole chapter to the same purpose. And whereas some had urged, that in several places of scripture, baptism was said to be given in the name of Christ, only;-he answers, that "in all those places, though the name of Christ only was mentioned, yet the whole Trinity was understood." Many other testimonies might be added; but the following decree of Pope Vigilius (about the year 540 A. D.) sufficiently shews both the practice of the Church, and the severity of her censures against offenders in this case;" If any bishop or presbyter baptize "not according to the command of the Lord, in the name of the Father, and "of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, but in one person of the Trinity, or in "two; or in three Fathers, or in three Sons, or in three Comforters, let him "be cast out of the Church of God."

As sects grew and multiplied in the Church, innovations were made, and though the greater part of them retained the old form of the Church, some varied from it. The Tritheists, instead of three divine persons in the Trinity, under the economy of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; brought in three collateral, co-ordinate, and self-originating beings; making them three absolute and independent principles, without any relation, or unity in plurality. Hence they made a change in the form of baptism-baptizing in the name of three unoriginated principles, as we learn from the apostolical canons, by which their baptism is condemned.

Menander also, a disciple of Simon Magus, to all his master's heresies added this of his own," that no one could be saved, except he were baptized in his name." Irenæus and Epiphanius tell us, that he had assumed the title of the Messiah, and taught that he was the person sent of God for the salvation of men, and to gather a Church by mysteries of his own appointment, &c. And Tertullian says, that he promised to his proselytes, that all who received baptism in his name, should be immortal, incorruptible, and have the benefit of an immediate resurrection. But this heresy soon came to nothing, leaving its name only behind it.

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Montanus, the founder of the sect of the Montanists or Cataphrygians, asserting that he was the Holy Ghost, and annexing to himself two females, Priscilla and Maximilla, under the name of prophetesses, took upon him to write a gospel. Accordingly his followers adininistered baptism in the name of Father, Son, and Montanus or Priscilla, and they sometimes used Maximilla, for the Holy Ghost. The opinion of the Montanists is thus expressed by Jerome: "God at first intended to save the world by Moses and the Prophets; but because he could not effect his design that way, he assumed the body of a Virgin, and preached in Christ, under the species of a Son, and "suffered death for our sakes: And because, by these two degrees he could not save the world; at last he descended, by the Holy Ghost, into Montanus, “Priscilla, and Maximilla, and made Montanus (who was an eunuch) haye "that plenitude of prophecy which St. Paul himself did not pretend to have.” The Marcosians, or Marcites, were derived from one Marcus, a sorcerer, who taught his disciples to baptize in the name of the unknown Father of all things; in the name of Truth the Mother of all things; and in Jesus, who descended for the union and redemption and communion of these powers.

The Paulianists also denied the divinity of Christ, and consequently were innovators upon baptism; and the council of Nice forbade the receiving them

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