ferior address a great man in the plural file. Buxtorf has clearly fhewn this to have been a custom among the Hebrews: he says that the words are expreffed, to denote eminence and dignity, in the plural number, with a fingular antecedent, that by Enallge, à plural Noun is ufed instead of -and the fer תחת ידאברהם אדניו a fingular, as vant put his hand under the thigh of Abra ham his master. Some are of opinion, that, wherever Elohim is expreffed, Elah is understood, as fignifying the God of Gods, or the Supreme God. It is remarkable that a plural verb is made ufe of with Elohim, in the 20 of Exodus, and 13th verfe: as wлn ombe in thou Elohim. From this it may be inferred, that no mystery is couched under the words, when a fingular verb is used, or we should find it uniformly the fame. The reason of this variation being only this, place, refpect is paid to the that in one idiom of the language; and in the other, Mofes fhews that he understood Grammar. But I fhall close this argument with the follow ing lines: Omnit Omnia enim ftolidi magis admirantur amafitque, Again, these fort of philofophers are fo amazingly learned above others, fo high do they foar above common understanding, nay, above the most eminent genius's, that folving the ufual phenomena of nature, would be thought too confined a circle, and they must attempt to explain miracles which are always reckoned above the powers of nature. But Mr. Digby attempts to explain that paffage of fcripture, where Joshua is reprefented as faying, Sun, ftand thou ftill in Gibbeon; and thou Moon in the valley of Ajalon. He tells us there are three words in the Hebrew to denote the fun: as, Heres, which means the body of the fun, the matter whereof it is compofed; Hume, which is the folar heat; and Shemofh, the light of the fun. No where, he fays, is Heres faid to rise or set, but Shemosh only: that when Joshua faid, Sun, ftand thou ftill, the folar light, on which the diurnal rotation depended, as the agent ceafed its effluence, in confequence, the earth discontinued her motion tion round her own axis, and the fun appeared to remain above the horizon. Moft amazing philofophy-moft tranfcendent reafoning! But is it poffible that any perfon could imagine, that, if the folar light had ceafed its effluence, the fun could be seen above the horizon? What ufe could a diftant light be to Joshua, which could never reach the optic nerve? Would this have ferved him to destroy his enemies? What alfo would have been the confequence of stopping the diurnal motion? would not the contending armies and all the inhabitants of the earth have been thrown violently from its furface? Would not the body of waters which are collected about the Equator, and retained there, by the centrifugal force, have quit their situation, and deluged the counnear the poles? Countries at and adjacent to the poles, it being proved the polar diameter of the earth is less than the equatorial? Does it not appear that fuch an hypothefis requires a complication of miracles to fupport it? But fuppofing the learned author fhould have confined his reafoning to his lexicon, yet there we will find him alfo mistaken. The word on Heres, fignifies tries near t L 2 ( 148 ) fignifies the fun, according to Buxtorf, “ quod calore fuo faciat terram ficcam," because it renders the earth dry by its heat. wow Shemoth is a Chaldean word, applied to the fun, on account of its apparent attendance on the earth, in administering both heat, light, and every other comfortable influence whereof it was poffeffed, and can be proved by many examples. In the 14 of Judges and 18th, Heres is faid to fet; and in Job 30. 28. Hame is mentioned, with refpect to light; and Shemoth is found occafionally to fignify both heat and light. Jonas, 4th chap. and 8th verfe. Galetinus endeavours to prove a Trinity from the name Jehovah, which he fays confifts of four letters, but in reality of three, because the letter is twice expreffed, that Yod, as it is the first in order of the letters, fignifies the Father, who is the firft of the divine perfons, and who has originated from none, and from whom the others are derived: that the letter which fignifies to be, denotes the fon, by whom all things were created, and began to be: that the letter implies the mutual love of the Father and the Son, that is, the holy spirit connecting both: that the letter is ה twice twice expreffed, to intimate the twofold refpect which is due to the Son: How much better than this muft we not acknowledge the reafoning of Pythagoras, who fays, the number four is holy in itself, and comprifes the divine effence, Unity, Power, Benevolence, and Wifdom! If it be evidently abfurd to use falfe modes of reafoning from Hebrew roots, how much more filly is it, to argue in the fame manner, from the feptuagint tranflation! a tranflation that, even where it expreffes the fenfe best, cannot with refpect to the original derivation of words, have any affinity with the original, excepting in very few inftances, where they are derived from Hebrew: thus the word e as to its radical, is widely different in conftruction from either Elohim or Jehovah. Yet this mode of commenting on Genefis, has been adopted lately by a truely novel writer. But great genius's fcorn to derive their information from any other fountain, but their own prolific imagina, tions; it is but mean and grov'ling to confefs a dependence on the writings and improvement of the learned world. The eccentric genius foars upon his own pinions, like the bird of Jove, far beyond the ken of human eye, |