648
Defense of an Essay, &c.
DEC.
his answer is that the difficulty consists not in the absolute clinracter of the word shin, but in the fact of its being an appellative noun, this militates direct- ly against his position that a relative term alone can express this doctrine in its Scriptural simplicity; besides he has told us that relative nouns, as well as absolute, are appellative; which being the case, we should be glad to know why an absolute appellative must give place to a relative appellalive in our teaching the scriptural doctrine of the Trinity?
If to this Dr. L. replies, "Some relative terms are similarly construed," i.e. either with or without the article; that is the reason why we must have a relative appellative: our answer is, In Chinese there is no article; in this re- spect there is no difference between Shingti and Shin; and in English, his favorite phrase and the word God, tried by this test, can not be reconciled: he can not with "grammatical propriety" say, "Supreme Ruler made the world." Argument, p. 4.
(Note B., referred to on page 6CO.)
While we are engaged with this author, I will call attention to some very remarkable temples mentioned by him. He says, “In China, at the time of the former Fived ynasties (A.D. 907-959), there was a temple to 'Hien Shin,' or * Yau Shin,' and another to 'the Fire, Hien or Yuu Shin. During the Táng dynasty (A.D. 620-904), there were religious books from Persia. The fourthi year of Tien-pau (A.D. 745), the Emperor commanded the two Persian monasteries to be changed into Ta-tsin (Romish) monasteries (Nestorian?), We have also a Tablet giving an account of the spread of the King kiảu (Illustrious religion) in China, written by King Tsing in the second year of Kien-chung (A.D. 781) Now to explain the character Hien, or Yau, it is from shi and from t'ien and is the god (Shin) of Heaven, whose religion arose in Palestine ;* which originally was on the eastern borders of the Roman empire (Tá-tsin).† That which is called the "Foreign Yau,” is the "Yuu Shin," which is the same as the Shin of heaven, and belongs to the Roman empire as I suppose, and is the origin of the religion of Jesus. With respect to the religion of the God of Fire (Ho Shin) it came from Persia, and has no connection with the Roman Empire (Ta-isin); should we
* Fuh-lin, i. e. Judea. Moses first established this country: Jesus was a des- cendant of his.
↑ Tu-tsin is the country of Rome in Italy or Roman empire. The Chinese observing that the men thereof in height and size were very like themselves, called it Ta-tsin, but the natives themselves did not call it by this name.
"The character Yuu (or Hien, as others read) was originally made by the Chinese men; the people of the west have not a coinmon mode of writing with Chinese men; how then came they by this character?" His astonishment seems to arise from this Chinese character's being given on the Temple as the name of the foreign God.
§ Palestine, from the time of the Hán dynasty, began to serve Rome; but from the time of the Tang dynasty it was captured by the Arabians.
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