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1much they may differ in thoir opinions respecting the nature of the subordinate deities, and die veneration which is to be paid to them by man ; and however barbarous the conceptions of some nations ou this subject may be when compared with those of others. Hence, says the elegant Maxim us Tyrius, " You will see one according taw and assertion in all the earth, that there is one God, the king and father of all things, and many Gods, sons of God, ruling together with him. This the Greek says, and the Barbarian says, the inhabitant of the Continent, ' Via. the present and other works of Protlus, together with those of Plolious, Porphyry, Jambluihus, Syruaus, Ammonius, Damascrus,01ympu>dorus, and Simplicms. Digitized by Google ■ I K TnODUCTIO N. and he who dwells near the sea, the wise and the unwise. And if you proceed as far as to the utmost shores of the ocean, there also there arc Gods, rising very near to some, and setting very near to others." ' This dogma, too, is so far from being opposed by either the Old or New Testament, that it is admitted by both, though it forbids the religious veneration of the inferior deities, and enjoins the worship of one God alone, whose portion is Jacob, and Israel the line of his inheritance. The following testimonies will, I doubt not, convince the liberal reader of the truth of (In, assertion. In tl»e first place it appears from the 3fid chapter of Deuteronomy, v. 8. in the Septuagint version, that " the divition of the nations teas made according to the number of the angels of Cod," and not according to the number of the children of Israel, as the present Hebrew text asserts. This reading was adopted by the most celebrated fathers of the Christian church, such as, among tlie Greeks, Origen, Basil, and Chrysostom, and among the Latins, Jerom aud Gregory. That litis too, is the genuine reading, is evident from the 4th chapter of the same book and the I9tb verse, in which it is said, " Awl lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and wbeu thou sent the sun and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, sbouldsl be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the Lord % God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven." Here it is said that the stars are divided to all the natioas, which is equivalent to saying that the nations were divided according to the number of the stars ; the Jewish legislator at the same time, considering his own nation as an exception, and as being under the government of the God of Israel alone.
2the natioas, which is equivalent to saying that the nations were divided according to the number of the stars ; the Jewish legislator at the same time, considering his own nation as an exception, and as being under the government of the God of Israel alone. For iu the following verse it is added, " But the Lord liath taken you (i. e. the Jews), and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt, to be unto him a people of inheri- tance, as ye are to this day." By the angels of God therefore (in Deuteron. 32. v. 8.) ihe stars arc signified ; and these in the same book (chapter 17- v. 3.) arc cxprr-stly called Gods; " And hath gone and served other Gods, and worshipped them, either the tun or moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded.'" I u the 3d chapter also, and llic l24lh verse, it is implied in tlie question which is there asked, that the God of the Jews is superior to all the celestial and terrestrial Gods : " For what God is there in heaven, or in earth, that cau do according to thy works, and according to thy might r" As the attention of the Jews was solely confined to the worship of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, they but little regarded the powers whom they conceived to be subordinate to this God, and considering all of them as merely the messengers of their God, they gave them the general appellation of angel* ; though as we shall shortly prove from t t mt n»i»it f*« «*<rx"*s *vx9V t****! ™f *« Dissert. 1. Edit. rriae. IHTRODUCTIOH. the testimony of the Apostle Paul, they were not consistent in confounding angth properly so died with Gods. But that tiie stars are not called Gods by the Jewish legislator as things inanimate like statues fashioned of wood or stone, is evident from what is said in the book of Job, and the Psalms : " Behold even the moon and it shineth not, yea the stars are not pure in his sight. How much less man that is a worm, and the son of man which is a worm ?" (Job. xxv. v. 5. and 6.) And, " Wheu I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained ; what is man that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou visitest him." (Psalm viii. v. 3. and 4.) It is evident therefore front these passages, that the heavens and the stars are more excellent than man; but nothing inanimate can be more excellent than that which ia animated. To which may be added, that in the following verse David says, that God has made man a little lower than the angels.
3ssages, that the heavens and the stars are more excellent than man; but nothing inanimate can be more excellent than that which ia animated. To which may be added, that in the following verse David says, that God has made man a little lower than the angels. But the stars, as we have shown, were considered by Moses as angels and Gods ; and consequently, they are animated beings, and superior to man. Farther still, in the Septuagint version of verse the 4th of the 19th Psalm, God is said to have placed hit tabernacle in the tun, (« rce nhm rf/rs to o-xtevtapet awrou) which is doubtless the genuine readiug, and not that of the vulgar translation, " In them (i. e. the heavens) hath he set a tabermV cle for the sun." For this is saying nothing more of the suu than what may be said of any of the other slurs, and produces in us no exalted conception of the artificer of the universe. But to say that God dwells in the sun, gives us a magnificent idea both of that glorious luminary, and the deity who dwells enshrined, as it were, in dazzling splendor. To which we may add in confirmation of^ this version of the Septuagint, that in Psalm xi. v. 4. it is said, " The Lord's throne Is in heaten." And again in Isaiah Ixvi. v. l. « Thus with the Ix>rd, the heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool." If therefore the heavens are the throne, and the sun the tabernacle of deity, they must evidently be deified. For nothing can come into immediate contact with divinity without being divine. Hence, says Siroplicius,' " That it is connascent with the human soul to think the celes- tial bodies are divine, is especially evident from (hose, (the Jews) who look to these bodies through preconception* about divine natures. For tbey also say that the heavens are the habitation of God, and the throne of God, and are alone sufficient to reveal the glory and excellence of God to those «tho are worthy ; than which assertions what can be more venerable ?" • In his eommeBUry on the second book of Ari»UiuV«. treaiKc On the Hovn v Digitized by Google IHTBODOCMOM. Indeed, that lb* heavens are not the inanimate throne and residence of deity, is also evident from the assertion in the 19th Psalm, " That the heavens declare the glory of God." For R.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
1much they may differ in thoir opinions respecting the nature of the subordinate deities, and die veneration which is to be paid to them by man ; and however barbarous the conceptions of some nations ou this subject may be when compared with those of others. Hence, says the elegant Maxim us Tyrius, " You will see one according taw and assertion in all the earth, that there is one God, the king and father of all things, and many Gods, sons of God, ruling together with him. This the Greek says, and the Barbarian says, the inhabitant of the Continent, ' Via. the present and other works of Protlus, together with those of Plolious, Porphyry, Jambluihus, Syruaus, Ammonius, Damascrus,01ympu>dorus, and Simplicms. Digitized by Google ■ I K TnODUCTIO N. and he who dwells near the sea, the wise and the unwise. And if you proceed as far as to the utmost shores of the ocean, there also there arc Gods, rising very near to some, and setting very near to others." ' This dogma, too, is so far from being opposed by either the Old or New Testament, that it is admitted by both, though it forbids the religious veneration of the inferior deities, and enjoins the worship of one God alone, whose portion is Jacob, and Israel the line of his inheritance. The following testimonies will, I doubt not, convince the liberal reader of the truth of (In, assertion. In tl»e first place it appears from the 3fid chapter of Deuteronomy, v. 8. in the Septuagint version, that " the divition of the nations teas made according to the number of the angels of Cod," and not according to the number of the children of Israel, as the present Hebrew text asserts. This reading was adopted by the most celebrated fathers of the Christian church, such as, among tlie Greeks, Origen, Basil, and Chrysostom, and among the Latins, Jerom aud Gregory. That litis too, is the genuine reading, is evident from the 4th chapter of the same book and the I9tb verse, in which it is said, " Awl lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and wbeu thou sent the sun and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, sbouldsl be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the Lord % God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven." Here it is said that the stars are divided to all the natioas, which is equivalent to saying that the nations were divided according to the number of the stars ; the Jewish legislator at the same time, considering his own nation as an exception, and as being under the government of the God of Israel alone.
2the natioas, which is equivalent to saying that the nations were divided according to the number of the stars ; the Jewish legislator at the same time, considering his own nation as an exception, and as being under the government of the God of Israel alone. For iu the following verse it is added, " But the Lord liath taken you (i. e. the Jews), and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt, to be unto him a people of inheri- tance, as ye are to this day." By the angels of God therefore (in Deuteron. 32. v. 8.) ihe stars arc signified ; and these in the same book (chapter 17- v. 3.) arc cxprr-stly called Gods; " And hath gone and served other Gods, and worshipped them, either the tun or moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded.'" I u the 3d chapter also, and llic l24lh verse, it is implied in tlie question which is there asked, that the God of the Jews is superior to all the celestial and terrestrial Gods : " For what God is there in heaven, or in earth, that cau do according to thy works, and according to thy might r" As the attention of the Jews was solely confined to the worship of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, they but little regarded the powers whom they conceived to be subordinate to this God, and considering all of them as merely the messengers of their God, they gave them the general appellation of angel* ; though as we shall shortly prove from t t mt n»i»it f*« «*<rx"*s *vx9V t****! ™f *« Dissert. 1. Edit. rriae. IHTRODUCTIOH. the testimony of the Apostle Paul, they were not consistent in confounding angth properly so died with Gods. But that tiie stars are not called Gods by the Jewish legislator as things inanimate like statues fashioned of wood or stone, is evident from what is said in the book of Job, and the Psalms : " Behold even the moon and it shineth not, yea the stars are not pure in his sight. How much less man that is a worm, and the son of man which is a worm ?" (Job. xxv. v. 5. and 6.) And, " Wheu I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained ; what is man that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou visitest him." (Psalm viii. v. 3. and 4.) It is evident therefore front these passages, that the heavens and the stars are more excellent than man; but nothing inanimate can be more excellent than that which ia animated. To which may be added, that in the following verse David says, that God has made man a little lower than the angels.
3ssages, that the heavens and the stars are more excellent than man; but nothing inanimate can be more excellent than that which ia animated. To which may be added, that in the following verse David says, that God has made man a little lower than the angels. But the stars, as we have shown, were considered by Moses as angels and Gods ; and consequently, they are animated beings, and superior to man. Farther still, in the Septuagint version of verse the 4th of the 19th Psalm, God is said to have placed hit tabernacle in the tun, (« rce nhm rf/rs to o-xtevtapet awrou) which is doubtless the genuine readiug, and not that of the vulgar translation, " In them (i. e. the heavens) hath he set a tabermV cle for the sun." For this is saying nothing more of the suu than what may be said of any of the other slurs, and produces in us no exalted conception of the artificer of the universe. But to say that God dwells in the sun, gives us a magnificent idea both of that glorious luminary, and the deity who dwells enshrined, as it were, in dazzling splendor. To which we may add in confirmation of^ this version of the Septuagint, that in Psalm xi. v. 4. it is said, " The Lord's throne Is in heaten." And again in Isaiah Ixvi. v. l. « Thus with the Ix>rd, the heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool." If therefore the heavens are the throne, and the sun the tabernacle of deity, they must evidently be deified. For nothing can come into immediate contact with divinity without being divine. Hence, says Siroplicius,' " That it is connascent with the human soul to think the celes- tial bodies are divine, is especially evident from (hose, (the Jews) who look to these bodies through preconception* about divine natures. For tbey also say that the heavens are the habitation of God, and the throne of God, and are alone sufficient to reveal the glory and excellence of God to those «tho are worthy ; than which assertions what can be more venerable ?" • In his eommeBUry on the second book of Ari»UiuV«. treaiKc On the Hovn v Digitized by Google IHTBODOCMOM. Indeed, that lb* heavens are not the inanimate throne and residence of deity, is also evident from the assertion in the 19th Psalm, " That the heavens declare the glory of God." For R.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
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