to Solomon and the Israelites, in the most solemn and magnificent manner, the approbation of the giver of revelation at the dedication of the temple. The same glory too appeared to Isaiah, to the shepherds, at the transfiguration, to St. Paul on his journey to Damascus. Other instances might have been adduced; but these are sufficient to prove that the same symbol of the divinity has uniformly appeared in all ages of the Church, and that it was well known to the first race of man, from the time when they were few in number. It was always universally known. It was by the appointment of God himself presented to the attention of man, and it is the opinion of the learned Joseph Mede and other divines, that the same Shechinah will be again manifested at that period, when the second advent of our Messiah shall announce the second destruction of the world.

Now as all error is a perversion of truth, either by new combinations of its component doctrines by adding to, subtracting from, or altering by imperceptible innovations, and apparently immaterial glosses, the purer creed; and as it was impossible to deny that the Shechinah was a proof of the presence and continued power of the one true God; it is but natural to suppose that the incipient corruption would begin at the most evident and undoubted truth: and I have no doubt that the collected evidence of facts will prove the accuracy of this hypothesisThat the Sun was first venerated as the symbol of the continued influence and presence of the Deity; and that the first cause of that veneration, which afterwards degenerated into actual worship, was its similarity to the Shechinah, which was well known to all the primitive nations.

.are the original words חלק להם כבוד :brightness

Maimonides declares most expressly, that in their first departure from pure religion, men worshipped the host of heaven; among other reasons, because God had divided with them his Now the word 7, is the very word used in Exodus xxiv. 16, 17, aud in many other passages of scripture, to express the glory of that visible supernatural fire, which manifested the presence of Jehovah. He imparted, therefore, (the words may be translated), the glory of the Shechinah to the stars; or, "He made the Shechinah permanent in the heavens;" though its casual appearance for wise purposes was permitted in the usual manner upon earth. And because, Maimonides proceeds, the host of heaven thus partook of the glory of Jehovah, they were venerated among mankind; that is, they were originally venerated as the symbols of God's presence; and in after ages,

when the primary object of their veneration was forgotten, they were worshipped as the dispensers of blessings, and the givers of all good to mankind.

This idea derives additional confirmation from the account given us by Sanchoniathon, who lived 163 years before the reputed destruction of Troy, of the idolatry and apostacy of the second generation of men. From the names and circumstances recorded, it is well argued by Dr. Hales, that Cain and his wife are there meant. They are said to have been the offspring of the first pair, and in seasons of drought to have stretched out their hands towards the Sun, as the Lord of the heavens.

Unless the worship of the Sun originated in some such manner as I have now intimated, Cain, or whoever is meant by Sanchoniathon, would not have petitioned the Sun for rain. He had been accustomed to the Shechinah: he went out from its presence; and when in distress, he looked to the Sun, as the permanent Shechinah. He addressed his God as Baal Samen, the Lord of the heavens. The inspired writers call the true God" Jehovah Tsabaoth," Lord of the host of heaven, including the Sun, which was absurdly dignified with the divine titles. Cain remembered the period when he bowed down before the true Shechinah, and unwilling even in his affliction to return to the visible Church, whose communion he had forsaken, he offered up his useless repentance and rejected petitions to another supposed visible emblem of the Deity.

The Sun was considered as a permanent Shechinah: admiration soon changed into veneration and homage. From the worship of the Sun the progress was easy to that of the heavenly host; and as God himself had permitted the appearance of fire to be the symbol of his presence, the incipient veneration of that element and of the Sun, would be, as we find it was, at one time, universally prevalent.

This we believe to have been the case among the several branches of that family which settled at Shinar.

SECTION XI-Origin of Damonolatry.

We now come to the difficulty-by what means, or on what account, the idolaters attributed to mortals the titles of their solar Deity; and from what source the worship of their deified ancestors originated?

Not only had the will of the Deity permitted the Shechinah to appear to man, to manifest his continued presence; he had

condescended to control, and guide, and counsel the heads of families, or the several individuals to whom it appeared good, by communicating his will by a super-human Being, in human form; which Being is called in Scripture the angel, or the messenger Jehovah. In support of this opinion we have the indisputable, and the undisputed testimony of the Jewish Church, the Christian Church, particularly in its primitive and purer periods; we have the whole weight of unauthorised tradition, and the literal interpretation of Scripture. This was the word of the Lord God, walking in the garden in the cool of the day. This was the great Being which appeared to the principal individuals of the Jewish Church, and after the lapse of the destined time, tabernacled among the Jews, fulfilled the predictions of his servants the prophets, and was sacrificed on the cross as the long-announced propitiation for the sins of

inan.

On the appearances of this divine personage to the early antediluvian, and postdiluvian patriarchs, was founded the doctrine of the Avatars of the Hindoos. An Avatar among the Hindoos means a descent of the Deity: and man had been encouraged since the fall to expect a permanent incarnation of the bruiser of the serpent's head. The appearances, however, of which we are now speaking, were all transitory. When the object for which they had been permitted was accomplished, the miraculous appearance was withdrawn. The form which had been presented to an individual was seldom presented a second time and thus, as Mr. Faber has justly observed, the precise aspect of the human form that served as a vehicle to the divinity in one, could not have been known to another, age. The doctrine of the incarnation of the promised Messiah was known from the beginning, but it was misunderstood even by Eve; who, when Cain was born, exclaimed, I have gotten a man from the Lord; or, as it should be translated, I have obtained the man, even Jehovah himself. It was wisely intended that the attention of mankind should be constantly directed to their great deliverer; but as there had now been several manifestations of the divine presence, and it was not known when there might be another, an opening presented itself to an ambitious and daring man, to assume the title of the incarnate Son; to call himself the benefactor and guardian of mankind; to originate castes by denominating his own family sacred; and, when he had secured to one class the sacerdotal and military influence, to impose those opinions by the sword, which he had at the

beginning recommended, and extended by mildness and persuasion. Such was the policy, and such the apostacy of Nimrod, as it may be almost demonstrated from the united testimony of the traditions of the East, the scattered remarks of ancient writers, the exact agreement of this theory with all the remaining authenticated history of this remote age, and its perfect harmony with the subsequent narrative of Scripture.

As this incarnate Being was considered as a divine person, and the Son of God, and as Nimrod claimed the authority and titles of the incarnate, it is evident that his father or his ancestor must from some cause have been also considered as divine. Nimrod was descended in a right line from Ham, who was the elder born of Noah. To the line of the eldest was attached the right of primogeniture, and the honor of becoming the human parent of the Messiah, unless that right of primogeniture was forfeited; as it was by Ham. Assuming to himself the title of the incarnate, as a divine person, Nimrod taught the people that not only himself but his family were sacred, as the continued, permanent incarnations of the promised Son; and therefore that his ancestors, who had borne this character, and had been benefactors to mankind, were entitled to their homage and veneration; therefore Noah, and Ham, and Chus, were worshipped. But as the Sun in the heavens was the visible symbol of the Deity, their veneration of the Sun was just; and as their ancestors were divine, and therefore entitled to their homage, therefore it was that the Sun and their ancestors were identified; the actions of men were attributed to the Sun, and the powers of the Sun in turn were attributed to mortals. Thus the heathen Gods all bear the titles of the Sun, though they act and speak as men. Nimrod was the son of Chus, who gave name to the family of the Cuthim, or Scythi, or Cuthites, who in all ages have controlled their brethren: he was known by the name Belus, or Baal, a common name for the Sun: he was called also Ninus, or the incarnate; the union of the two names in one person accurately describes the nature and source of the idolatry.

Thus were the appearing of the Shechinah, and of the angel Jehovah, perverted to an incipient, and imperceptibly innovating and corrupting idolatry. Nimrod claimed to be considered as the expected permanently incarnate and divine son; his deceased father was venerated as the solar Deity, from whom, as a God, that divine Being was to descend. The effects of their union of policy, usurpation, and violence, are related in Scripture: War and all its evils began with a false religion; and the earth

has not even yet recovered from the contaminations and consequences of the idolatries of Babylon, the mother and first cause of apostacy from God.

SECTION XII.

Causes of the dissensions at Shinar, and origin of the two great sects among the ancient idolaters.

From the histories of Nimrod still preserved in the East, more particularly from a rare tract entitled the Dabistan, discovered among some refugee Persians in India, by Sir William Jones, which celebrates Nimrod under the title of Maha Beli, or the great Belus: from the testimony of Justin, and Strabo and others, we learn that Nimrod established a powerful empire. The laws by which he governed this empire, and the means by which he obtained and secured the power, are preserved in that ancient work the Institutes of Menu, which is the same as the Desatir of the Iranian Mahabad or Nimrod. From these sources of information we learn, that the institution of castes began at Shinar, by securing to the sacred family of the incarnate One the whole military and sacerdotal power, and subjugating by this means his more unguarded and unsuspecting brethren.

The manner in which the doctrine of frequent incarnations prevailed among the pagans, may be clearly illustrated by that passage of Homer, in which Neptune is represented as coming to the assistance of the Greeks. The Trojans were beginning to be successful, when the Greeks suddenly recovered themselves, being rallied by Calchas, a chieftain whose influence among them was great, from his possessing the three usual characteristics of the heads of families in those early ages; being at once the prophet, the priest, and leader of a tribe. The sudden assistance of Calchas, who came from the ships to which the Greeks were retiring, was ascribed to the power of a Deity; and the chieftain himself was supposed to be not the very individual with whom they were acquainted, but an incarnation of Neptune in a mortal form. In this way, when the doctrine of the incarnation was once perverted, gods were multiplied for ever: the attributes of Deity were ascribed to men; to heroes, lawgivers, statesmen, and particularly to heads of families. The several advantages deduced from the change of seasons, the pleasures arising from scenery, the glories of the ocean, and the sun; every thing in short which delighted the