Directory_and_Chronicle_1850 — Page 617

1850.

Defense of un Essay, &c.

575

that can perform works above, and contrary to the course of nature, and concerning themselves sometimes to do so for the interests of man- kind; for these qualifications and performances deserving extraordinary respect from us, hath been a constant opinion in all places and times, to which sort of beings some one general name hath been in all lan- guages assigned, answering to that of God among us. Of such beings that there is one, supreme and most excellent, incomparably surpass- ing in all those attributes of wisdom, and power and goodness; from whom the rest, and all things beside have derived their beings, do de- pend upon, are sustained, and governed; the author, I say, of all be- ings, and dispenser of all good; to whom consequently supreme love, reverence, and obedience are due, hath been also the general sense of the most ancient, most wise, and most noble nations among men; to whom therefore, in a peculiar and eminent manner the title of God (and those which answer thereto) is appropriated; so that when the word is absolutely put, without any adjunct, or limitation, or diminu- tion, he only is meant and understood; to which sometimes for fuller declaration, are the epithets Optimus, Maximus, Summus, Eternus, Omnipotens, Dominus, and the like; the Best, the Greatest, the Most High, the Eternal, the Almighty, the Sovereign God.”

Of the almost universal consent of heathen nations to the polytheism stated by Dr. Barrow in the first part of this quotation, there can be, I think, no doubt; with respect to the second point, I am persuaded that a careful examination of what these nations have said for them- selves, not trusting to what too-indulgent theists have said for them, will greatly diminish the number of those who cau fairly be set down as believing in one Supreme, "from whom the rest and all things have derived their beings." Such examination will show that the same nu- tion, at different stages of its existence, is to be placed in a different category with respect to its explicit belief of a self-existent, intelligent, first cause of all things.

In my Essay, Vol. XVII. page 70, I expressed the opinion that we now "ineet Shin just where the Greek philosophers found es s; de- signating any one of a class of beings who are all regarded as proper objects of worship." The correctness of this opinion has been ques- tioned, and it is of such importance that it demands our consideration. Above, (on pp. 423, 424,) we have considered the probability there would be of our finding the posterity of any of the rebels who were scattered abroad on the face of the earth from Babel, say B.C. 2554, retaining a knowledge of the true God, when they come up to our notice on the pages of profane history, say in the 8th, 9th, or 10th century before Christ.