2d. The Greeks and Romans received their knowledge of letters from the Phoenicians, the Turks from the Arabians, and other European nations from the Romans. "Phœnices primi, famæ si credimus, ausi Mansuram rudibus vocem signare figuris." LUCAN. From unexceptionable witnesses it appears, that the Phoenicians and their colonists the Carthaginians spoke in different ages a dialect of the Hebrew, scarcely varying from the original. Eupolemus, in his book of the Kings of Judea, says, "Moses was the first wise man; letters were first given by him to the Jews, and from them the Phoenicians received them." Chœrilus, in his verses on the Solymi, who, he says, dwelt near the lake, supposed to be the Asphaltites, now called the Dead-Sea, uses this expression: "These with their tongues pronounced Phoenician words"-and thus Lucian-" He spoke some indistinct words, like the Hebrew or Phanician." To the same purpose many other particulars are collected by Grotius. 3d. The Phænicians were next neighbours to the Hebrews. 4th. The Arabick, Chaldee, Ethiopick, Egyptian, Persick, Syrian, and Samaritan languages, have all issued from the same stock with that of the Hebrews. 5th. Thus all the languages in use among men, that have been conveyed in alphabetical characters, have been the languages of people connected ultimately or immediately with the Hebrews. 6th. There is a sameness in the denomination of letters in the Hebrew, other Oriental, Greek and Latin languages. 7th. All other nations have also a similarity of order in the arrangement of their letters with that of the Hebrews, as alpha, beta, &c. 8th. There is also generally a resemblance in shape, and all the diversities of character are reconcilable with the transmission of alphabetical writing from the Hebrews. 9th. Of all the nations of antiquity, the Hebrews are the only people who have preserved any regular account of their original. 10th. Alphabetical writing was not known to the Greeks till the time of Cadmus; who, according to Sir Isaac Newton's opinion, came into Greece in the reign of king David, about a thousand years before the Christian era, and six hundred after the time of Moses. 11th. There is no alphabet remaining to be a competitor with the Hebrew. The order of the Greek and Latin alphabets, says Mr. Hartley, is taken from that of the Hebrews, as we have it in the Alphabetical Psalms. "An Alphabetical Psalm," and the same may be said of some other parts of the scriptures, "begins with each of the letters of the alphabet successively, either in every verse, as in the 25th, 34th and 145th; or in every other verse, as in 37th, or in every hemistick, or half verse, as in the 111th, 112th and 113th; the 119th differs from all these, because every verse of a stanza begins with the same letter of the alphabet, so that it has twenty-two stanzas, answering to the twenty-two letters of it." Univ. Hist. iii. 390. 12th. The resolution of complex articulate sounds into simple elements, or letters, with the recomposition of these sounds in writing them down alphabetically, far exceeds any invention of ancient times. Admitting, then, that these facts do not amount to a proof, that letters are derived from an immediate revelation to Moses, or to any before him; yet, it is remarkable, that by a review of what has been written about them, we may trace them backwards from nation to nation; and find them most early used in those parts, where by the best accounts, mankind first dwelt, and from whence they dispersed." Shuckford's Connexion, &c. By these, as well as other considerations, drawn from a due respect for the divine perfections, and from the nature of things, we may be convinced, how vain is the representation made by some of the ancients, through ignorance of the truth; and by some moderns, in contempt of it, that the first men lived like beasts, uttering only strange and uncouth noises, till at length convenience taught them the use of speech. Thus among others, Diodorus Siculus writes in the first book of his history, and Vitruvius in his second book. So Horace: "Quum prorepserunt primis animalia terris, When animals crawl'd forth at first from earth, And Lucretius: "At varios linguæ sonitus natura coegit To utter various sounds Nature compell'd Mankind; and then convenience taught them words. But, however letters may have been introduced, by their aid we, in a manner, quit the bounds of time and place in which we live, overtake intellectually things whirled from us by the lapse of ages, and approach even to the infancy of creation, see, as it were, things separated from us by the greatest distance; converse familiarly with the furthest absent; are taught by the dead; commit to an impartial and present depositary, private contracts, laws, and publick treaties, and transmit to posterity all the instruction we can possibly collect for rendering them wise, and good, and happy. TO THE EDITOR OF THE THEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. MR. EDITOR, IN the opinion of every sincere believer in the written word of God, the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ is a doctrine on which the whole system of salvation is founded. The efficacy of that atonement depends wholly on the divinity of the person of Jesus Christ. If he was a mere man, as some who yet would be thought Christians, vainly assert, he could not atone for his own sins, much less for the sins of a world. Unless he was God, as well as man, he could neither forgive the sins of men, nor direct them by his holy Spirit into all truth, or sanctify them by the same divine agent, to the saving of the soul. It is on this account that I send you some striking testimonies of this all-important fact, from the pens of several great and pious men, who have lived and died in the firm belief of this essential doctrine; and whose means of knowledge were great and convincing; and who, by their good works, showed that their faith was wrought by God. The authors I shall quote are both Jews and Christians, who lived either before the Christian era, or immediately after the Apostles, and could not have been ignorant of their opinions on this subject. If it should be alleged that these are from writings well known to the learned world, and of long standing, and not proper for a periodical work of the nature of your Magazine; I answer, that though this may be true in some measure, and these extracts may not be so profitable or entertaining for men of great theological reading, or those who have wealth to purchase books, and leisure and inclination to read them with care, yet this probably is not the case with a great majority of your readers. My wish is to disseminate this important and essential truth among the people at large. I do not write for fame, but to establish the sincere inquirer of every rank in the principles of the religion of Jesus Christ, especially in that great doctrine without which all the rest is vain; for, as Peter says, we have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye-witnesses of his majesty.' (2 Pet. i. 16.) I would wish to lead him into an intimate union with the Saviour of men, by a living and operative faith, and thereby enable him to build his hopes of eternal life on the rock Christ Jesus. Let us begin with the Jewish writers, once the people of God in a very peculiar relation, over whom he was King and Governour, in a very distinct manner from the rest of mankind. The Old Testament ascribes the creation of the world to the Son or Word of God. He appeared to our first parents in Eden. He pronounced sentence of condemnation on them at the fall. In Exod. xxxiii. 20. it is said by God to Moses, Thou canst not see my face, for 6 there shall no man see me and live;' and St. John declares, ch. i. ver. 18. that no man hath seen God at any time.' And yet we are repeatedly told, in as plain and positive words, in Exod. xxiv. 9-11. that Moses and others did see and behold God, (even the Alheim of Israel, as it is in the original.) So Jacob, wrestling with the angel in the form of a man, said, I have seen God face to face.' Gen. xxxii. 24-30. He it was who accompanied his people in the wilderness, in whom was the name, (i. e. the nature,) of Jehovah. Ex. xxiii. 21. Again: Then went up, (into the mount,) Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and they saw the God of Israel, (the Alheim,) and they beheld the Alheim.' Exod. xxiv. 9-11.* What did these men see? Plainly the representative of Jehovah, the second person in the Trinity, as a Man in glory-and by seeing him, they saw the Alheim, even as Jacob did, by seeing the angel. One year after this, in Numb. xii. 8. Jehovah says of Moses, with him will I speak mouth to mouth, and the similitude of Jehovah shall he behold.' What similitude could this be, but that by which we have already seen, Jehovah Alheim become visible to the eyes of flesh, even the Son of God under a human form in glory? (vid. Acts vii. 38.) This St. Paul expresses by the emphatical terms, 'the express image or similitude of his substance; for our God is a consuming fire; dwelling in light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen or can see.' 1 Tim. vi. 16. So Christ, after his incarnation, or the word being made flesh, was 'the image of the invisible God:' and Christ himself declared, that he who had seen him had seen the Father.' Abraham calls one of the three Beings who came to him before the destruction of Sodom, the Almighty God, the Judge of all the earth.' Jacob in his journey to Canaan, at Mahanaim, called the place Peniel, because he had seen God face to face.' So Isaiah, vi. 1. ' In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw also Jehovah sitting on a throne high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. And one said unto another, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Jehovah of Hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory. Then said I, wo is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen the King Jehovah, Lord of Hosts.' But how did the Jews understand this doctrine, before the incarnation of the Saviour? They are the best interpreters of their own language. Eusebius says, lib. i. ch. 4. But they of old, evidently knew the very Christ of God: for that he appeared to Abraham-gave answers to Isaac-talked with Jacob-conversed with Moses, and afterwards with the prophets.' The learned Kircher cites the Jetzirah, a Hebrew book which the Jews ascribe to Abraham himself, but which is said to have Parkhurst. been written by Rabbi Abraham, a very ancient cabbalist, wherein the first person of the Trinity is described by the name 'Kather, the Crown, or profound Intelligence; the second person Chocbbma, or Wisdom, or the Intelligence illuminating; and the third person Binah, or the sanctifying Intelligence, the builder of faith, and the author of it.'* The ancient Jewish prayer, in their litany called HosannaRabba, or the Great Hosanna, publickly sung on the last day of the feast of Tabernacles, proves this: "For thy sake, O, our Creator, Hosanna; for thy sake, O, our Redeemer, Hosanna; for thy sake, O, our Seeker, Hosanna." So their great benediction, which was pronounced under the law, by Aaron and his sons"Jehovah bless thee, and keep thee; Jehovah make his face to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee; Jehovah lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.' This seems similar to the Christian baptism. The Father is the author of blessing and preservation; grace and illumination is from the Son, by whom we have the light of the knowledge of God in the face of Jesus Christ; peace is the gift of the Spirit, whose name is the Comforter.t The learned Morneus says, that it was once the received doctrine, and the true cabbala of the Jewish schools, that the famous words of forty-two letters used as an expository name of the great triliteral name, or Jehovah, which was not allowed them to pronounce, was explained to have been the Father is God; the Son is God; and the Holy Spirit is God: Three in One, and One in Three.t The Rabbi Ibba, who is said to have lived long before Christ, and who is quoted in the book Zobar, written by Simeon Ben Jochai, before the Talmud, as the Jews confess, in descanting on Deut. vi. 4. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, urges, that the first Jehovah is God the Father; the second, (Alheim,) is God the Son, for so he is called by the prophet, Immanuel, or God with us; the third word, Jehovah, is God the Holy Spirit; and the fourth word, One, is to show the unity of Essence in the plurality of Persons.' Many of the cabbalists used the names of Father, Son, and Spirit, for the three hypostases, declaring at the same time, that the doctrine of the persons in the Trinity, by no means opposed that of the essence in Unity.§ Rabbi Simeon Ben Jochai, treating on the name Alheim, says, "Come, and see the mystery of this word. There are three degrees or affinities, and each degree is to be distinguished by itself. But the three are one, and united to each other in one, nor is one to be divided from another." The same Rabbi and Jonathan the Chaldee paraphrast, who both wrote some years before Christ, commenting on Isaiah vi. 1. where the Lord, (Adonai,) is represented as sitting on a throne, Hore Solitariæ. VOL. I.-No. II. † Jones. Hore Solitariæ. § Ibid. 2 S |