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"forsake THE LORD; (and, if to offer "thereon burnt-offering or oblation, or if, "to offer thereon peace-offering, let THE "LORD himself judge!) -Or whether we "have not [rather] done it, through a religious fear of [this] thing: that is to say, "Lest your children might say unto our "children, hereafter: What have ye to do "with THE LORD, THE GOD OF ISRAEL,

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ye children of Reuben and Gad? For THE "LORD hath made Jordan a boundary be"tween you and us; Ye have no share in

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THE LORD: And so, your children might "cause our children to cease from worship

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ping THE LORD: Therefore, we said, Let 66 us build ourselves an altar,-neither for burnt-offering nor for sacrifice, but for a "witness between you and us and our pos"terities, &c. for a pattern," &c. Josh. xxii. 20, &c.

This passage contains an admirable and authentic specimen of the purity and the simplicity of primitive faith: The leading idea of IAH, I take to be "sameness" or immutability; of its immediate derivative, IAHOH," oneness," or unity; of EL," power;"

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and of ELOHIM, its descendant, " dominion." And surely these most striking and obvious attributes of the Deity were judiciously selected, to repel the charge of Idolatry and Polytheism; by professing their belief in the universal sovereignty of "the only true "GOD."—"The powerful (GOD) omnipotent

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(OF GODS) the one (LORD)." As the same august titles should be rendered, Ps. 1. 1, in that magnificent summons of all the nations of the earth, to attend the general judgment; so finely and awfully illustrated, Matt. xxv. 31-46, and Rev. xi. 17-18, and xv. 3-4, and xix. 6, and xx. 11-15.

And that these indeed, are the genuine and scriptural "notions involved radically "in the DIVINE NAMES," I shall next endeavour, with God's help, to prove.

PART

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PART II.

THE first part was confined to the irksome and ungrateful task of "casting down" etymological imaginations," imposing, from their antiquity, and from the authority by which they are still patronized; but which, I trust, were fully proved to be unsubstantial and fanciful, and consequently injurious to the cause of SACRED CRITICISM, which rests on the solid foundation of sober etymology and sound theology:-I now proceed, in this second part, with more cheerfulness and alacrity, to "build up," the genuine and scriptural leading significations of the primitive names EL, ELOH, ÆLOHIM; and the principal epithets with which they are connected in Holy Writ; reserving for the third part, the discussion of the significations of the remaining names, IAH, IAHOн, and their auxiliaries.

And here, it may be necessary to anticipate an objection drawn from the great ab, struseness and mysteriousness of the subject:

"If the Primitive Names of THE DEITY "be so SECRET' or mysterious, in their ra"dical significations; if the nature and at"tributes of THE DEITY, which they de"note, be so incomprehensible to human "reason, is it to be imagined that they could "have been framed in the infancy of human

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society, when mankind were too much en"grossed by outward objects, and the supply "of their temporal wants, to afford leisure "or inclinations, for abstract speculations

so profound and abstruse; which have "baffled the researches and confounded the "skill of the acutest metaphysicians and "theologians since, in the most learned and polished ages of the world?"

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However incomprehensible in their full extent the nature and attributes of THE DEITY, even to the highest orders of rational creatures; 66 intimately known" only to "THE SON OF HIS LOVE;" yet as that all-gracious Son has been pleased to reveal Himself, and to expound the SPIRITUAL nature and worship of THE FATHER OF ALL, to mankind," in divers degrees and sundry ways" of information, to our first

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parents and the patriarchs, in ways suitable to human capacity and comprehension; is it to be imagined that when Adam, by the divine suggestion, gave names to all the inferior animal tribes, he should neglect or omit some appropriate appellation for his Almighty CREATOR and PRESERVER?—If man was formed a religious, as well as a social being, could he want words to breathe forth his supplications, praises, and thanksgiving to the supreme source of all the comforts he enjoyed, all the provisions appertaining to life and godliness? as well as the glorious prospects of future happiness in the eternal mansions? No, surely.

"THE ORACLE OF THE LORD," we collect from the testimony of Holy Writ, personally conversed with Adam and his wife, in the garden of Eden; with their son Cain; with Noah, with Abraham, Moses, Elijah, and many other worthies, under the Patriarchal and Jewish dispensations, “face "to face," familiarly, as a friend, or awfully as a judge sometimes in a "still small "voice," as a man; sometimes in a voice of thunder, as an offended God.-In all these

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