The poor were not the first called as being the more simple and credulous, but as having better dispositions towards the Gospel than the great. None, however, were refused; and both Nicodemus and Zaccheus, wealthy Israelites, were among the earliest converts. But in general, the rich Jews were, on the one hand, too bloated with the things of this world; and, on the other, too full of prejudice, and expectations of temporal dominion, to stoop to the humility of the Gospel. They persecuted the believers; and their own conversion was circuitously effected by witnessing the courage and patience with which their inflictions were borne.. When such effects multiplied upon them, they became convinced that the religion which produced them required calm examination, and could be no deception.

Christianity, by addressing itself to the poor and unprotected, had the greater obstacles to encounter; and its progress itself became miraculous, evincing the immediate protection of God.

Had learning and eloquence in the teachers acted upon wealth and power in the hearers, infidelity would have called the Gospel a political engine-a league of cunning orators covetous of money and influence, with cunning rulers covetous of power; and its progress, the natural consequence of this juggling combination. As it is, we affirm that God's Holy Spirit carried through a religion against all human probability; and this itself was a miracle.*

18. The sibyls.

The sibyls were women said to be inspired by Heaven, who flourished in different parts of the world. They are believed to have been ten in number, the chief of whom dwelt at Cumæ, near Naples, and had lived 700 years, old and distressed, when Æneas came into Italy; having obtained of Apollo leave to live

*If the proof drawn from the low estate of the first professors relate to the apostles, the grandeur and comprehensiveness of the system was naturally beyond their reach, as prejudiced and unlettered Jews. Again, such men could not have carried on a false system for any length of time, without detection; nor were they likely to fabricate a story which should bring them distress, persecution, death.

as many years as there were grains of sand in her hand when she made the request. This sibyl wrote her prophecies on leaves, which, being left at the mouth of her cave, were dispersed by the winds, and thus became incomprehensible. It was this sibyl who came to Tarquin the Second, demanding an exorbitant price for nine volumes of prophecies. On being refused, she returned, first, with six, and then with three, demanding the same sum as at first. The books were at length bought, and entrusted to a college of priests, who consulted them on great occasions. They were burned with the capitol, in the time of Sylla, and messengers were sent into Greece to collect the sibylline verses of all the other sibyls. The fate of these verses is unknown; but it is believed that from some of them Virgil took his fourth Eclogue. The more modern sibylline books were forgeries of the second century; yet this prophecy of a new order of things, speaking distinctly of the Messiah, must have preceded his appearance. It was probably taken from the Septuagint, which circulated the prophets in Greek 200 years before our Saviour. The apostle tells us (Rom. iii. 2), that the oracles of God were committed to the Jews; but no sacred writer mentions the sibylline prophecies.

19. Διὰ τοὺς ἀγγέλους, 1 Cor. xi. 10. Explain.

All the ancient commentators are agreed in translating ¿ovoía a covering, or veil, a symbol of being under the authority of the man; as Theophylact explains it, rò roũ éžovσiášeσÐai σύμβολον, τουτέστι τὸ κάλυμμα. Wherefore Whitby's paraphrase, "because of the evil angels;" and the reason given by others, viz. the woman having been tempted by the devil to do that which has been the cause of her shame and subjection,-cannot be admitted. Modesty was her peculiar feature; and her subjection to the man, as the first created, was appointed before she was tempted by the devil. Some call the angels here mentioned Jewish witnesses, or heathen spies, who would censure any impropriety in the church. Owen and Archbishop Newcome pronounce the words a marginal gloss; but this notion is contrary to all the MSS. The true meaning is, "in reverence for the angels;" alluding to those ministering spirits whom the Jews and early

Christians believed to be peculiarly present in places of worship. See Hammond, and Bloomfield's Synopsis in loc. Ps. cxxxviii. 1, Sept. Evavríov ȧyyéλwv Yadw ooɩ, and v. 2. Philo reckons among the auditors of the hymns sung at the Temple, τοὺς ἀγγέλους λειτουργοὺς ἐφοροὺς κατὰ τὴν σοφῶν ἐμπειρίαν θεοσμένους, μὴ τι τῆς ¿ðñs ékμedés, i. e. inharmonious; for these spirits, characterised by purity, humility, and subordination, would be grieved at any violation of congruity in the lower family of God; 1 Tim. v. 21, Heb. i. 14, Eph. iii. 15.

In the most ancient Liturgies, and the Constit. Apost. viii. 4, angels are supposed to be present at divine worship, especially upon solemn occasions; either as joining in the services, or being witnesses to what takes place and we read also in Origen, contra Celsum, lib. v. p. 233, that they may convey the prayers

of the just to the throne of God.

This view of διὰ τοὺς ἀγγέλους may further be extended to signifyin imitation of the angels, who veil their heads with their wings before the throne of God, as they did before the mercy-seat; Isa. vi. 2, Above the throne stood the seraphims, each one had six wings: with twain he covered his face, &c.

20. Creation, its various meanings.

Creation is the calling of any thing into existence. It is of two kinds, natural and spiritual. 1st, Natural; as, In the beginning, [when] God created the heavens and the earth; or as when a child is born. 2d, Spiritual; as when the natural man is, by the washing of regeneration, born again, and, as the Scripture says, the new man put on, created after God in righteousness and true holiness, Eph. iv. 24. Thus David says, Create in me a new heart, Ps. li. 10. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, Eph. ii. 10.

21. Plurality of persons in one Godhead, by whom believed.

The idea of a plurality of persons in one Godhead obtained among the Persians, Egyptians, and Hindoos. The Persian Zoroaster says, "The paternal monad, or unity, generates a duality; and a triad of Deity, of which a monad is the head,

shines forth throughout the world." The triad is called in the fragments of his oracles, virtue, and wisdom, and truth: these oracles were written in Chaldaic, and translated afterwards into Greek. Oromasdes, Mithra, and Ahiram (Mithra being the mediator), are the Persian vestiges of a trinity. Brahma, Vishnu, and Sceva, are the Hindoo triad ; and the grand Hindoo deity is represented, in the cavern of Elephantina, near Bombay, as a figure with three heads and one body—the creator, preserver, and regenerator. The trinity of Egypt was exhibited in Osiris, Cneph, and Ptha; and symbolized by a globe, a serpent, and a wing, on the temples and obelisks; the globe being deity, or the father; the serpent, wisdom or λóyos; and the wing, spirit. All these mythologies were vestiges of the patriarchal religion; and hence too the Platonists derived their ἀγαθόν, νοῦς, ψυχή. As the doctrine of the Trinity can be discovered in the Old Testament, so was it admitted by learned Jews in their Targums. The shechinah, the word, the angel of God, is considered as Divine by the Jewish writers.

22. Episcopacy.

Bishops are a higher order of office-bearers in the Church, each invested with authority over a district, and whose chief business is to ordain, and send forth ministers by the imposition of hands. Episcopacy is of Divine authority, inasmuch as the constitution of the Church of Christ (who came not to destroy the law, but to fulfil or perfect it) was formed on the model of the polity of the Hebrews, who, besides the God, the head, of their theocracy, had high-priests, priests, and Levites. The twelve apostles had reference to the heads of the twelve tribes, as the seventy had to the Sanhedrim. Christ, our great High-Priest, assumed not his office without authority from his Father; Every high-priest, taken from among men, is ordained for men in things pertaining unto God. And no man taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaròn. So also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high-priest; but he that said unto him, This day have I begotten thee, Heb. v. 1, 4, 5. Christ, the great Shepherd and Bishop of souls, made a distinction between the two classes of ministers whom he

sent forth to establish his kingdom-the twelve apostles, and the seventy. To the apostles he said, As my Father hath sent me, even so SEND I you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted, &c. John xx. 21-23. Accordingly, the apostles were invested with, and claimed authority over the persons whom they, in their turn, appointed to sacred offices; and the elders of Ephesus were summoned to Miletus by Paul, to receive from him instructions; among which we find the words, Take heed unto all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers. The apostles likewise conveyed to others, as their successors, the privilege of authority over priests, 1 Tim. v. 1. While the apostles lived, the word elder, or presbyter, was applied indiscriminately to the priests and the overseers of the priests, i. e. the bishops; but when these personal friends of our Lord were removed from the earth, the word apostle was laid aside, and that of bishop exclusively used, in contradiction to that of presbyter, as signifying the highest rank of ecclesiastical functionaries. The distinction of office, however, was always in the Church; and we challenge the enemies of episcopacy to point out a time later than that of the apostles when it began. Bishops were termed apostles by St. Paul, and angels of churches by St. John. The apostles who were presbyters when the great έπíσкожоç, or overseer, was on earth, became bishops from the time of his breathing on them, and more especially from that of the descent of the Holy Ghost at the first Christian pentecost. Prior to this time, the apostles still called the twelve had no power of governing the Church. Neither they, nor the seventy, could ordain; for they were told to supply the want of labourers in the harvest, not by appointing others, but by praying the Lord of the harvest, that HE would send forth labourers into his harvest, Luke x. 1-17. This is the principle of episcopacy, and was in the Church from the beginning. The fact of being ordained to the ministry did not, and does not, confer the power of ordaining others; to this, episcopal consecration is necessary. After having received the Holy Ghost-but not until then, not until the great Bishop of souls had left the earth, the apostles