whence the Rabbins conclude that God cómmenced his creative acts at the beginning of their

year.

*

The Cabalists obtain the name of God (Co, 26,) by summing up the letters in the Hebrew name of God

(Jehovah,) both containing according to the sound of

they obtain the number

112, which is the same that is found in

my (The Lord God.) They also find the number 45, contained in the particle, (what,) in the name (Jehovah,) written according to the sound of the letters, thus: 87, 187, 87, 71); and this they derive from the circumstance of Moses's enquiry of God by what ()§ name he should call him; and they deem this circumstance the more remarkable from the peculiarity of Moses's expression, which contains the letters of the Hebrew name of God (Jehovah,) in the last letters of the four following consecutive words,

they) לי מה שמו מה

12 M (If they should ask me what is his name, what" shall I say unto them?

1

The

*1, 2, 7, 200, x, 1, v, 300, *, 10, л, 400, 3, 2, 1, 200, x, 1, #1116; and 2, 2, 7, 200, x, 1, v, 300, n,5, v, 300, 3, 50, 5, 5, 2, 50, 3, 2, 1, 200, &, 1,1116.

†', 10, 7, 5, 1, 6, 1, 5,—26; and 2, 20, 1, 6,=26.

‡, 20, 5, 80, 1, 6, 1, 6,-112; and, 19, ♬, 5, 1, 6, 7, 5, x, 1, , 30, n, 5, 7, 10, 2, 40,=112.

"

§2, 40, 1, 5,45; and, 10, 1, 6, 7, 4, 7, 5,18,115, 6, 8, 19 1, 6, 7, 5, 8, 1,—45.

The words of this sentence included within quotation marks are the translation of the preceding Hebrew phrase.old

Cabalists have also a mode of obtaining 42 out of the name, (Jehovah,) written according to the sound of the letters, thus: 7, 11, 7, 77; and to this they attach a great mystery, because God, in communicating his name to Moses, said, 778 mv8 728, (I will be what I will be.) Now the word 8, (I will be,) occurring twice, contains the said number 42.* The last example of the Gematria we shall give, is that of (to observe,) and (my precepts,) where each word con

*, 10, 1, 6, 1, 4, 1, 5, 1, 6, 1, 6, 7, 5, 42; and 8, 1, 1, 5, , 10, 7, 5=21. This doubled makes 42.

† v, 300, ₪, 40, 1, 6, 7, 200,=546; and », 40, v, 90, 1, 6, n, 400,, 10,=546. The preceding examples of the Gematria which follow that one respecting Shiloh and Messiah will be found in Athanasii Kircheri, Edipus Ægyptiacus, Tom. I. p. 218, et seq. Cabala Hebræorum, Edit. Rom. 1652.-It may not here be improper to notice another spécies of Gematria in use among the Rabbins. It is thus described by Selden: "Out of every cen tenary and decad of the letters of a word they take an unity, and add these to the rest, that is, the less numbers; by which operation, if two words agree in sum, they think forsooth some great mystery, of mutual relation, betwixt the things signified is discovered. Those two of the first-fruits and tythes by this way are equal. For example, dispose the letters and their numbers thus:

400 6 200 20 2 200 300 70 40

In the first, out of 400, 200, and 20, take 4, 2, and 2, that is, an unity out of every centenary and decad; and the sum is 8, which added to the less numbers, make 16. Likewise in the second, out of 200, 300, 70, and 40, take 2, 3, 7, and 4, there being no less numbers, and you have the same sum as in the

Having thus produced in the preceding pages, an inexpugnable body of evidence in favour of the great veneration the ancient Greeks and Jews had for numbers; and having also given a great variety of examples in support of the three species of mystic numbering in use among the ancients; our next business is to inquire which of these three is adopted by the Spirit of prophecy, in numbering the Beast. That it cannot be the first which is here intended is abundantly evident from the context, where mention is made of "the number of his name;" which number immediately afterwards is expressed to be 666; consequently "the number of the Beast," and "the number of his name," are only two different expressions to convey the same meaning. But, upon the supposition that the first species of numbering mentioned in this chapter is here intended, the latter phrase "the number of his name" is totally unintelligible; for these words can mean nothing else than, that the name of the Beast contains the number 666. That the number of the Beast is not the same with the number of letters in his name, according to the second species of mystic computation treated of in this chapter, is sufficiently manifest from the great amount of the number, which would suppose his name to contain not fewer than 666 letters. But it is impossible to find the name of any nation, country,

other, that is 16." Selden's Works, Vol. III. Tom. II. col. 1080.

D

people, or individual, from the creation to the present period, which contains so many letters; much less any Hebrew or Greek name; therefore the name of the Beast is not to be counted in this way. Consequently there can only remain the literal valuation of the Greeks, or the Gematria of the Rabbins, by the rules of which this number alone can be explained. But the computation must be made in the Greek tongue, from reasons already advanced. This point is further elucidated by the peculiar modes of expression made use of by the Holy Spirit in speaking of this number, which are precisely the same kind which were adopted by the Greeks in computing by their ironía. For, in the first place, 666 is called, "The number of the Beast," by which is meant the number of the name of the Beast; as 801, the number in the Greek word for dove, is called by Irenæus "the number of the bird,"* meaning evidently the number found in the word Tegisega.+ In the second place, 666 is called "the number of his name," as 888 is called, "the number of the name of Jesus." In the last place,

* Καὶ διὰ τοῦτο φήσιν αὐτὸν α καὶ ω, ἵνα τὴν περισερὰν μηνύση, τοῦτον ἔχοντος τὸν ἀριθμὸν τούτε τοῦ ὀρνές. “ Wherefore he says that he is a and w, that he might manifest the dove, this bird having this number." Iren. Lib. i. cap. 12. p. 71.

T

+π, 80, ε, 5, p, 100, 1, 10, σ, 200, τ, 300, ε, 5, p, 100, α, 1, =801; and a, 1, w, 800, 801.

† Τὸ γὰρ Ἰησοῦ ὄνομα κατὰ τὸν ἐν τοῖς γράμμασιν ἀριθμὸν, ε ἔσιν ὀγδοηκονταοκτώ. "For the name of Jesus, according to the number in the letters, is 888." Iren. Lib. i. cap. 12, sect. 2, p. 72.

the number of the Beast is directed to be computed; the Greek word here used being the verb which is the very same which was used upon all occasions of this kind. *

In confirmation of what has already been said respecting the computation of the number 666 being made in the Greek tongue, we may add the following words of Irenæus, who flourished in the second century, ὁ ἀριθμὸς τοῦ ὀνόματος τοῦ θηρίε, τὰ τὴν τῶν Ἑλλήνων ψῆφον διὰ τῶν ἐν αὐτῷ γραμμά Toy, the number of the name of the Beast, acτων,

και

cording to the calculation of the Greeks, by means of the letters of which it is composed, is 666.

To complete the evidence that the number and name of the Beast are to be found in the Greek tongue, we need only examine the three passages in the first and last chapters of the Revelation, in which The Son of God adopts the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet as a symbol of his own eternity, saying, "I am The Alpha and The Omega, The Beginning and The Ending, The First and The Last." Here it is evident that Jesus styles himself The Alpha and The Omega, because He is the beginning and ending of all things, as alpha

*

66

Ψηφίζοντες τὸν ἀριθμὸν αὐτῶν τῶν σοιχείων. 6 Computing the number of their letters." Iren. Lib. i. cap. 13, sect. 1, p. 78. See also Artemidori Oneirocritica, and Kircheri Edipus Ægyptiacus upon the Cabala of the Hebrews.

+ The Greek words of this sentence which follow ypaμμáτwr are lost; but the whole passage is preserved in the Latin translation. See Grabe's Edit. Lib. v. c. 30, prope initium.