CHAPTER II.

TESTIMONY OF THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH TO THE SUBJECT OF PROPHECY.

1. Object of the Disposition of the Cherubim at Eden—Its disappearance from the earth—The remembrance of its glory transmitted to the Postdiluvians—Its occasional re-appearance to Abraham, to Moses, to Israel, to Elijah, and to Isaiah—Identity of the visions of Isaiah, Ezekiel, and John—Similarity of the visions of Daniel, John, the Three Disciples, and Paul—Object of these glorious representations in heaven and on earth—Known among the Heathen, and grafted on their religious worship—Origin of Zabaism, and its spread over the world.

The setting up of the Cherubim, and a Flaming Fire, likened to a sword, as the emblems of the Divine glory and presence, in the garden of Eden, after the expulsion of Adam, was an evidence of God’s mercy and favour to fallen man, and a symbolical indication of the ultimate fulfilment of the primeval prophecy; Gen. iii. 24. As God set the _Bow_ in the cloud to be a memorial of his covenant with all flesh regarding the future preservation of the earth from the waters of a flood, so he set the _Shechinah_ in paradise to be a memorial of his covenant with man regarding the future destruction of his implacable enemy, and the future restoration of himself and his posterity to innocence and happiness, through the Almighty power of Him who dwelt between the Cherubim. That man was appointed to reside in the vicinity of Eden, and to worship before this supernatural evidence of the divine glory, is manifest even from the very short notices of the history of the Antediluvian world, which now remain. The sacrifice of Abel is supposed to have been consumed by _fire_ from the Shechinah, as a proof of its acceptance through faith in the promised Saviour; and the punishment of Cain appears to have consisted chiefly in his banishment from the face or presence of the Lord at Eden. There, indeed, did men first begin to call on the name of Jehovah; and thence, no doubt, was Enoch first translated to the kingdom of glory.

The flood at last came, and the Shechinah disappeared from the earth; but the remembrance of its supernal glory was preserved in the family of Noah. There was nothing, however, in nature with which it could be compared, for beauty and for dazzling brightness, but the _Sun_ itself, or a _Flaming Fire_ most terrible to the beholders. Such, indeed, have always been the terms of comparison used by those whom God hath favoured with the heavenly vision; and such, no doubt, was the description of the appearance of the Edenic Cherubim, given by the sons of the great Antediluvian to their posterity. In the appearance of Jehovah to Abraham, the divine presence was accompanied by a _flame_, a smoking furnace, and lamps of _fire_, Gen. xv. 17; to Moses in Horeb, by a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush, Exodus iii. 2; and to Israel, in the wilderness, by a pillar of cloud by day, and a pillar of _fire_ by night, xiii. 21; at Sinai, by thunders and lightnings, devouring _fire_, and smoke as the smoke of a furnace, xix. 16, and xxiv. 17; and at the setting up of the tabernacle of the congregation, by cloud and _fire_, and the _glory_ of the Lord, the Insessor of the Cherubim, lx. 34. At the destruction of the priests of Baal, God answered Elijah[43] by _fire_, 1 Kings, xviii. 38; at the dedication of Solomon’s Temple, the _glory_ of the Lord appeared with cloud and _fire_, 2 Chronicles vii. 1; and, in the year that King Uzziah died, Isaiah saw the glory of Christ, and spake of Him; then was the house filled with smoke, and His _glory_ filled the temple and the whole earth; and then was that glorious _Trisagium_ pronounced by the Seraphim, in the hearing of the prophet, and afterwards repeated by the four Living Creatures in that of the beloved disciple, which establishes for ever in the mind of the believer, His eternal power and Godhead, Isaiah vi. 1–4; John xii. 41; and Rev. iv. 8.

In the land of Chaldea, by the river of Chebar, and in the Temple of the Lord at Jerusalem, Ezekiel saw the _glory_ of the God of Israel, accompanied with a great cloud and a _fire_ infolding itself, and a brightness about it like the rainbow; the appearance of the _Living Creatures_, which he knew were the _Cherubim_, was like burning coals of _fire_, like the appearance of lamps, and out of the _fire_ went forth lightning; and the voice of the Almighty was like the noise of many waters, and the earth _shined_ with his _glory_, Ezek. i. x; lxiii. In his night visions at Babylon, Daniel beheld the _glory_ of the Ancient of Days, having a throne like the _fiery_ flame, wheels as burning _fire_, and a _fiery_ stream issuing from before him, vii. 9; and by the side of the river Hiddekel, he saw a man whose face had the appearance of _lightning_, and his eyes as lamps of _fire_, his arms and feet like polished brass, and his voice like the voice of a multitude, x. 6. Peter, James, and John saw the _glory_ of Christ on the mount of transfiguration, when his face did shine as the _Sun_, and his raiment was white as the _light_, and a bright cloud overshadowed them, Matthew xvii. 2, 5; Paul, at mid-day, saw his _glory_ as a light from heaven above the brightness of the _Sun_, Acts xxvi. 13; and he declared to the Hebrews of that age, as Moses did to the children of Israel 1700 years before him, in language of the strongest metaphor, that Jehovah our God is a consuming _fire_, Heb. xii. 29, and Deut. iv. 24. John, who said that God is _light_ and in him is no darkness at all, and that Christ is the _Light_ of the World, saw, in the Isle of Patmos, his eyes as a flame of _fire_, his feet like unto fine brass, as if they _burned_ in a furnace, and his countenance as the _Sun_ shineth in his strength, and heard his voice as the sound of many waters, Rev. i. 14–16; he beheld the mighty angel clothed with a cloud, and a rainbow over his head, and his face as it were the _Sun_, and his feet as pillars of _fire_, x. 1; and he saw the _Faithful and True Witness_, whose eyes were as a flame of _fire_, and on whose head were _many crowns_, who possesses _the Incommunicable Name_, and who is called _the Word of God_, the KING OF KINGS, and the LORD OF LORDS, xix. 11–16.

From all the splendid and glowing imagery, which is thus employed in Scripture, to shew forth the glory of Christ, and under which human language, though the gift of God, seems to labour and groan as under an insupportable burden, it is manifest that He, who is the brightness of his Father’s _glory_ and the express image of his person, hath, by symbolical representations of himself, both under the Old and the New Dispensations, declared the being and attributes of God from the beginning of the world. The Angel of Jehovah has, in fact, in all ages, made the heavens declare the _glory_ of God, and the firmament shew forth his handy work; in them, he hath set a tabernacle for the _Sun_, to demonstrate the wonders of his grace; and, he hath ordained the moon and the stars, not only to rule the night and direct the seasons, but to utter all his _praise_ in a universal language, which he has imparted to all nations under the whole heaven; Deut. iv. 19; Psalm viii. 3; and xix. 3. Thus it appears, that even among the heathen, the remembrance of the true God and his Son the Redeemer, was kept up by tradition and by symbol; and that traces of the grand truth first announced in the primeval prophecy, and afterwards gradually developed to God’s chosen people at sundry times and in divers manners, are to be found in the history of the religious worship of mankind in all ages, and from the remotest times. Before the flood these traces are no doubt very obscure, but they are not altogether obliterated. Soon after the deluge, however, was the light of the _Sun of Righteousness_ bedimmed in their gross minds by that of the natural emblems of his glory; and soon was _“the truth of God” changed into “the lie” of the devil_; for they began to worship and serve the _creature_ more than the _Creator_, who is God over all, and blessed for ever. Hence, arose the earliest and the most extensive system of idolatry ever known in the world, the worship of the _Sun_, and the _Moon_, and all the _Host of Heaven_; with this also was connected the worship of _Fire_, _Light_, and _Ether_, and of all those symbolical representations of these natural phenomena, which are to be discovered in the ancient records of the Babylonians, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Egyptians, Phenicians, and Persians, as well as in the early histories or traditions of the Chinese and the Hindoos or Eastern Indians of the Old Continent, the Britons, and the Celts or Gauls who overspread Europe, and the Peruvians and Mexicans or Western Indians of the New World.

2. The Sun worshipped by the Babylonians, Assyrians, and Chaldeans, under the names of Baal, or Beelsamen—By the Egyptians, under the names of Orus and Osiris—Connection between the Sun and Sirius—The Sun and his Satellite worshipped by the Israelites, under the names of Molech and Remphan, Baal, and Ashtaroth, during the Critarchal age—The Zabian idolatry set up at Jerusalem in the Monarchal age—The partial Reformation of Josiah—The ancient Persians, Sun and Fire worshippers—Origin of Mithras—The gods of Phenicia, Elioun, and Adonis or Tammuz.

It is of some importance to our general argument, to refer to a few of the evidences of this universal species of idolatry, which are still to be found in the names ascribed to the gods which these different nations worshipped. Among the Babylonians, the Assyrians, and the Chaldeans, there existed from the age of Nimrod to the destruction of Nineveh and Babylon, the worship of _Baal_, in Hebrew ‏בעל‎ _Lord_, which signifies, astrologically speaking, _Lord of the Ascendant_; this term is in fact the same as ‏בל‎, _Bel_, or _Belus_, βῆλος, βέλις, or Ἡλιος, and signifies the _Sun_, who is called in Chaldee ‏בעלשמין‎, βεελσαμεν, or _Beelsamen_, the Lord or _Master of the Heavens_, and Leader of the Heavenly Host. Among the Egyptians arose, at a period perhaps prior to, or, at least, coeval with the age of Nimrod, the worship of _Orus_ and _Osiris_, and at a later period, their attendant or identical gods, _Isis_, _Apis_, _Serapis_, _Anubis_, &c.; yea, “all the gods of Egypt.” The earliest of these is _Orus_, from the Hebrew ‏הרס‎ _Eres_, or ‏חרס‎ _Heres_, the _Sun_; or from ‏אור‎ _Aur_, or ‏האור‎ _He Aur_, the _Light_, or _Fire_, a term also applied to the Sun; whence, evidently comes the Greek ὡρος,[44] and ὡρα, or _Horus_, _Hora_, and _Era_, Time, a period of Time, and the beginning of Time, all of which are measured by the revolutions of the _Sun_. Next comes _Osiris_, from the Hebrew ‏הרס‎, _Eres_[45] inverted, that is _Sere_, the Sun, or from ‏השר‎ and ‏הסר‎, _He Ser_, _the Prince_ or _Chief_; whence also, ὁ Σείρ and ὁ Σείριος, _the Sun_, or _Sirius_ (and the English terms _Sir_, or _Sire_, and _Sirrah_), the former denoting the _Chief_, or _King_ of Heaven, and the latter, his _Satellite_ or _Companion_, in Hebrew ‏סריס‎, _Seris_, a _Double_, or _himself_, as in Hesiod, “Opera et Dies” line 417, where he is called Σείριος ἀστὴς; otherwise, the terms Σείρ and Σείριος may be derived from ‏זהר‎ _Zeer_, _Light_; ‏שחר‎ _Seher_, _Morning_; or ‏זרח‎ _Zereh_, the East or Sun-rising. All these terms, both in Hebrew and Greek, have evidently an intimate connection with each other, and indicate that there was originally some astronomical relation between the _Sun_ and _Sirius_, the largest and brightest of all the stars in the firmament. The term Σείριον, _Sirion_, indeed, derived from Σείριος, _Sirius_, is applied indiscriminately to every star, because all the stars were either supposed to follow the Sun in his daily course, or to borrow their light from that luminary. From this source, there can be little doubt that the Israelites, during their period of bondage in Egypt, borrowed their ‏מלך‎, _Moloch_, or ‏מלככם‎, _Molekem_ and _Milcom_, that is, their _king_, and the Star of their god _Remphan_ or _Chiun_ ‏כיון‎; whence comes Κύων, or _Canis_ and _Canicula_, the Dog-star or Sirius, idols of which they made to themselves figures to worship in the wilderness, Amos v. 26; Acts vii. 43.

This kind of idolatry appears to have been pursued with more or less obstinacy by the children of Israel, during the whole period of the Critarchal and Monarchal ages; notwithstanding the strict prohibitions of the _First_ and _Second Commandments_, and the awful sanctions with which their promulgation was accompanied at Mount Sinai. Passing over the rebellion of the _Golden Calf_ and the sin in the matter of _Baalpeor_, in the wilderness, we find that the Israelites forsook Jehovah, after the death of Joshua and of all the elders who outlived him, and served _Baalim_, or _Baal_ and _Ashtaroth_, ὁ βααλ and ἡ βααλ, the _King_ and _Queen_ of Heaven; and as often as they repeated this iniquity, so often were they punished for it, by subjection to the yoke of their enemies; Judges ii. 13; iii. 7; vi. 30; and ix. 46. After the worship of the true God was set up in all its magnificence and glory in the Temple at Jerusalem, how soon, alas! was it forgotten, and that of _Moloch_ or _Milcom_, _Chemosh_ and _Ashtaroth_ adopted in its stead; and how consoling must it have been to the real worshipper of Jehovah, to be informed, that even in the worst of times, there were 7000 in Israel who had not bowed the knee to _Baal_; 1 Kings, xi. 5; and xix. 18. Nevertheless, Israel was at last cut short for his idolatry, in making images and groves, worshipping all the _Host of Heaven_, and serving _Baal_; and Judah, being seduced by Manasseh to commit precisely the same abominations, was threatened with a similar captivity; 2 Kings, xvii. 16; and xxi. 3. A temporary suspension of this sentence, however, took place; and a respite of _forty_ years was granted to the house of Judah, because of the reform which was effected in the days of King Josiah. For, he put down them that burned incense to _Baal_, to the _Sun_, and to the _Moon_, and to the _Planets_, and to all the _Host of Heaven_;[46] and he took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the _Sun_, and burned the chariots of the _Sun_ with fire; but, after his death, they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, and there was no remedy: until, in fact, Jerusalem was destroyed, and Judah carried captive into Babylon; 2 Kings xxiii. 5; and 2 Chronicles xxxvi. 16.

Among the ancient Persians, the worship of the _Sun_ and _Fire_ appears to have existed from a period so remote, that no record remains of its commencement, though there can be no doubt that it was an offshoot from the Babylonish idolatry. For ages, it appears to have existed in Persia, in a state of greater purity than in Chaldea, if such a term can be applied to a corruption of the worship of the true God; and to have been mingled with more intellectual notions of the being and attributes of Deity, than were to be found among other heathen nations. The Persians, indeed, appear to have had a more distinct idea, though still a very obscure one, of the method by which the human race were finally to be rescued from the power of the Evil One, and raised to a condition of purity and bliss. They worshipped the _Sun_ under the name of _Mihr_, _Mithr_, or _Mithras_; the latter term, according to Mr. Morrison,[47] signifying _the wounder or bruiser of the head_, and if derived from the Hebrew ‏מות־ראש‎, _Muthras_, _Lord of Death_, conveying a beautiful allusion to the primeval prophecy, and to him who, long afterwards was declared in apocalyptic vision, to have the keys of hell and death, and who “openeth and no man shutteth, and shutteth and no man openeth” the gates of Paradise. Among the Phenicians, we find, according to a fragment of their ancient historian, Sanchoniatho, preserved by Eusebius, that one of their earlier gods was called _Elioun_, from ‏עליון‎, _the Most High_, who was also considered _Man_; and that Ὀυρανὸς και Γῆ, _the Heavens and the Earth_, were generated or created by him. They also worshipped the _Sun_, under the names of _Adonis_ and _Tammuz_; the former evidently from the Hebrew ‏אדוני‎, _Adonai_, _Lord_; and the latter from the name of the Hebrew month appointed for the celebration of his orgies. In the weeping for the absence, or eclipse of _Tammuz_, Selden sees the lamentations for _Osiris_, which originated in Egypt, and were observed in Phenicia; and in the rejoicing for his return or resuscitation, Parkhurst discovers a prelude to the joy of the nations at the advent of the promised Saviour, the true _Adonai_, or Lord of all;[48] Ezekiel viii. 14; and 1 John ii. 8.

3. The gods of the Hindoos, Vishnu, Buddha, Brahma, and Seeva, form no Trinity—The theft of their names and attributes from the Hebrew evinced by their meaning—Buddha an avatar of Vishnu—Origin of Fohi, the god of the Chinese—Druidical, Peruvian, Mexican, and Parsee worship—Origin of Surya, Suras, and Asuras—Russell’s citation of Macrobius on the worship of the Solar god—The concentration of Paganism.

Proceeding farther eastward, to nations whose origin is so remote and so involved in darkness, that all traces of their derivation from the Noachian stock is lost, we find in their ancient traditions similar evidences of the truth, buried under a mass of the grossest and most debasing idolatry. In the avatars, or transformations of _Vishnu_ and _Buddha_, the gods of the Hindoos, we perceive the awful perversion of the primeval prophecy, and its stupid admixture with more recent revelations concerning the Messiah, which have been purposely mystified and defaced by the agents of the Evil Spirit, in order that poor besotted mortals might be led away from the truth as it is in Jesus. But their own traditions testify against the Hindoos, and show, that in not seeking to know him who had placed his witness in the physical heavens, they were without excuse; for when they knew God, they glorified him not as God. The names of their chief gods, _Brahma_, _Vishnu_ and _Seeva_, plainly indicate their Hebrew origin and meaning. _Brahma_ signifies the _great Creator_, and is evidently derived from the word ‏ברא‎ _Bra_, _He created_, which occurs in Genesis i. 1, and ‏אם‎ or ‏אים‎, _Am_ or _Aim_, _terrible_; and _Vishnu_ or _Veeshnu_, _the Preserver_, from the copulative ‏ו‎ _Ve_ or _Vau_, and ‏אישנו‎, _Aishnu_ or _Ishnu_, _the Man for us_; these two, therefore, constitute a _Binity_ or _Duad_, by reason of the copulative particle between them, and not a _Trinity_ or _Triad_ in conjunction with _Seeva_, as is generally supposed by mythologists. As to the latter name, which signifies _the Destroyer_, it is derived from ‏שואה‎, _Seevah_, _Storm_, or _Destruction_, or from ‏שוע‎, _Seeva_, the _noise_ which accompanies it, thus exemplifying the idea of the poor untutored Indian, who sees God only in the fearful storm, and hears Him only in the thunder’s dreadful roar; or, perhaps, from ‏שוא‎, _Seeva_, a _dream_ or _vain error_, an “insubstantial pageant,” or even an _idol_, which is _nothing_ in the world. The exhibition of this triple absurdity in the temples of Hindoostan, not like _Janus_ at Rome, with _two_ faces, but like _Cerberus_ in Hell, with _three_ faces, shows not a _Trinity_, or _Sacred_ _Three in One_, in which Christians believe, but a threefold exhibition of the same God, as the _Creator_, the _Preserver_, and the _Destroyer_, in which the Hindoos, like the devils, believe and tremble. These are, in fact, the attributes of the _true Deity_; for He is Jehovah, and there is none else; there is no God besides him; he forms the light and creates darkness; he makes peace and creates evil; but, inasmuch as “they had not the sense to acknowledge God (literally to have God in acknowledgment), God gave them over to a senseless mind, to do those things which are not lawful (i. e. not appointed by God)”; Romans i. 28.

In the name of _Boodh_ or _Buddha_, an avatar of Vishnu, the principal God worshipped in the Transalpine, or Ultra-Gangetic regions and islands of Asia, we again trace the early idea of a Saviour of celestial origin. This name is evidently derived from the Hebrew ‏פדע‎ or ‏פדה‎, _Phudah_, _to deliver or redeem_, by interchange of the labials ‏ב‎ and ‏פ‎; and from the same roots are derived a variety of words, signifying either Redemption, or the Price of Redemption, and reminding us delightfully of Him, who, by his own blood entered _once for all_ into the holy place, having obtained eternal Redemption for us; Heb. ix. 12. In the name of _Fohi_, the chief god, worshipped in China from the earliest times, we discover also, by its Hebrew origin from ‏פחה‎, _Phohe_, _Prince_ or _Governor_, the foreshadowing of Him whom God sent to be a _light_ to lighten the Gentiles, and the _glory_ of his people Israel; Luke ii. 32. The Druids of ancient Europe were worshippers of the _Sun_ and _Fire_, and the name of their god was _Hesus_, most probably derived from the Hebrew ‏השש‎, _Hesus_, _burns up_ or _consumes_, emblematic of the physical objects of their devotion, but still prefiguring the advent of Him whose _fan_ is in his hand, who will thoroughly _purge_ his floor, and _burn up_ the chaff with unquenchable fire; Matt. iii. 12; and Isa. v. 24. Among the Peruvians and the Mexicans were found similar traces of _Sun_ and _Fire_ worship, accompanied with the apparatus of the _Incas_ or _Children of the Sun_, and the _Vestal_ or _Solar_ virgins, as in ancient Rome. Nor should we omit that the _Parsees_, the most learned sect among the Hindoos, are worshippers of the _Sun_, which is called in their language _Surya_, evidently of a similar origin with the Greek Σειρ and Σειριος; moreover, in their fabulous histories of the “War between the Gods and the Giants,” the spirits, who were the worshippers or children of _Light_ or the _Sun_, are called _Suras_, and the demons of darkness, _Asuras_, _A_ being evidently privative in Sanscrit as in Greek. In fine, the names of the gods which were worshipped among the Greeks and the Romans, as every classical reader knows, carry abundant evidence of their having been borrowed from the earlier systems of idolatry already described. Dr. Russell remarks, that “in the 1st book of the Saturnalia, from the 17th to the 23rd chapters inclusive, Macrobius establishes, from the writings of the philosophers, as well as of the poets, that all the gods of Assyria, Egypt, and Greece, were mere personifications of the _Solar_ influence; and, moreover, that all their names, however varied, might be resolved into some attribute of the _Sun_.” He further states, that all the nations of the East acknowledged originally but one deity, the _Sun_, and he ingeniously accounts for the rise of _Hero-worship_ and _Polytheism_; he also observes that, however the titles of the gods may be separated and distinguished from each other, they are all plainly resolvable into those of the _Solar_ deity. The same is to be observed of the gods of the Romans. Indeed, it is well known that the magnates of the Pantheon, Apollo, Phœbus, Bacchus, Jupiter, &c.,[49] were all severally addressed by the poets, as possessing the power supposed to reside in the _Sun_, to direct the seasons of the year, to give success to the operations of agriculture, to decide the fates of nations, and to influence all the affairs of men.

4. Origin of the Greek and Latin names of the Supreme God—Ingenious derivation by Dr. Hales—Confutation of that given by Francoeur in his “Uranographie”—Origin of the New Testament titles of Christ—Citation of Theophilus on this subject—Irrefragable proof of the Divinity of our Lord—Original temple of the Sun—Connection of Religious worship and Astronomical observation—Antiquity of the Hindoos and Chinese.

Thus it appears, that the heathen nations have, in all ages and countries, borrowed the names and attributes of Jehovah, the God of Israel, and applied them to the absurd creations of their own imagination, the physical objects of the world around them, or the stupid fabrications of their own hands. The origin of the name Ζεύς or Δὶς in Greek, and _Jupiter_ in Latin, as applied to the supreme God, appears to be distinctly traceable to the Hebrew. Dr. Hales endeavours to deduce the former of these from the Phenician form of ‏יהוה‎, _Jehovah_, or _Jahoh_, which in Greek letters is Ιευω, or Ιαω; and he cites the answer of the oracle of the Clarian Apollo, to the enquiry “Which of the gods is he to be reckoned, who is called Ιαω?”—

Φραζεο τον, παντων ὑπατον θεον ἐμμεν ΙΑΩ.

Learn this, that JAH is greatest God of all.

This derivation is ingenious; but it is more specious than solid. The name Δὶς, which gives its oblique cases to Σεύς, is evidently derived from the Hebrew ‏די‎, _Di_, _the Sufficient_, or _Self-sufficient One_, or, with the relative, ‏שדי‎, _Sdi_ or _Shaddai_, _He who is Self-sufficient_, _the Almighty_, a Scriptural name of God; Genesis xvii. 1. From the former comes Δὶς, and from the latter Σεύς,[50] by the addition of the Greek terminations. The derivation of _Jupiter_ from _Jah pater_ is obvious; while the oblique cases _Jovis_, _Jovi_, &c., clearly show their descent, or rather theft from the Hebrew word _Jehovah_. These observations on the origin of the Greek and Latin names of the Supreme Being are rendered the more necessary, in consequence of the following most extraordinary attempt on the part of an eminent French writer, to give a different, and we hesitate not to say, a very absurd account of their derivation. M. Francoeur, in his very curious and useful work on Astronomy, entitled “Uranographie,” p. 382, 5th edition, says, “Each PLANET was denoted by a letter; arranging these bodies in the order of their supposed distances, these representative characters were:—

Saturn. Jupiter. Mars. The Sun. Venus. Mercury. The Moon. Ω, Υ, Ο, Ι, Η, Ε, Α.

The Sun seemed to be placed in the middle of the motions, in order to regulate their march; thus he governed the universe. It was supposed that the planets revolved round the earth in crystalline concentric spheres. The world was denoted by the extreme letters Α and Ω; the letter Ι, of the Sun, united to these, formed the name ΙΑΩ, of the god of light, of Bacchus, of Osiris, &c.; whence was derived the words _Jévo_, _Jeova_, _Jovis_, _Jovis pater_, or _Jupiter_!!” It is a sufficient refutation of this learned derivation, that the name of Jehovah was known among the Hebrews at least 1000 years before the doctrine of the crystalline spheres was invented; and that the answer of the Clarian oracle itself, instituted before the fall of Troy, testified its well-known antiquity. The Latin term _Deus_, _God_, is evidently derived from the Greek Θεὸς, by interchange of the dentals Θ and Δ, and not from Δὶς or Σεύς; and the term Θεὸς itself, from Τίθημι, _Pono_, _to place, order, or arrange_, the old form of which, Θέω, signifies _to dispose_ or _create_. This appellation, Θέος, _the Disposer_ or _Creator_, is peculiarly applicable to Him into whose hands the Father hath delivered all things, and who of old created and arranged the universe; John i. 3; and iii. 35. Theophilus, Bishop of Antioch, has given the same derivation in the following eloquent passage, to which we can never give the spirit of the original: “But God is called Θεὸς, because he hath _reposed_ all things on his own _infallibility_, and because he _created_ [all things]; for to _create_, is to originate, and put in motion, and work upon, and put together, and prepare, and direct, and put life into, all things; and he is called Κύριος, because he rules over the whole universe, &c.”[51] Now, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is perpetually called in the New Testament, ὁ Κύριος ὁ θεὸς, _the Lord_, _the Disposer_ or _Creator_; hence, his _Divinity_ is established beyond dispute; his _Unity_ with the Father is demonstrated; and his _claim_ to the title of the _Sun of Righteousness_, is placed on the triple testimony of the Heavens, and the Earth, and the Everlasting God.

From the observations of this chapter, we draw the conclusion that all the various kinds of idolatry which have existed in the world, can be traced to a common source, namely, the Satanic substitution of the worship of the _Sun_, _Fire_, or _Light_, which was the emblem of the glory of God, for the worship of the Great Insessor of the Cherubim, who _dwelleth in the Light_ which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see; and who only hath immortality. We further conclude, that the tradition respecting the _Shechinah_, or glorious emblem of his Divine presence, passed through the family of Noah, and on it was grafted the idolatrous scheme which raised a temple to the _Sun_ at Babel; that traces of the existence of this worship among Europeans and Asiatics, and Indians of both hemispheres, from the remotest times, are to be found in their traditions respecting the heavenly bodies, and in the names and attributes ascribed to their false divinities; and that the antiquity of the Hindoos and Chinese, as nations, within the limits of the true system of Chronology, is no more to be doubted than that of the Babylonians, Assyrians, and Egyptians. In fine, the astronomical observations and religious worship of the former appear to have been so intimately connected, that, as we shall see in a subsequent chapter, a higher degree of credence must be yielded to the ancient records or traditions of both, than they have hitherto received among the learned world.[52]