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true, or whether it entered into the mind of Jacob or not, involves another and a far more difficult controversy, They urge also Job v. 1. to which of the saints wilt thou turn? which however may as properly be understood of living saints, as in James v. 14. let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him; where it is not recommended that the dead should be invoked, but that those who are living and present should be entreated to pray for us.

Another opposite to invocation is the tempting of God. Exod. xvii. 7. they tempted Jehovah, saying, Is Jehovah among us or not? Psal. lxxviii. 18, 19. they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust; yea, they spake against God; they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness? v. 41. they tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel. xciv. 7. yet they say, Jah shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it. xcv. 7-9. as in the day of temptation in the wilderness, when your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works. Matt. iv. 7. thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. 1 Cor. x. 22. do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than he?

A third consists in the invocation of devils, and the practice of magical arts. Exod. xxii. 18. thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. Lev. xix. 26. neither shall ye use enchantment, nor observe times. xx. 27. a man also or a woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death; they shall stone them with stones, their blood shall be upon them. v. 6. the soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a whoring after them, I will even set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people. xix. 31. neither seek after wizards, to be defiled with them. Num. xxiii. 23. surely there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel. Deut. xviii. 10-12. there shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer; for all that do these things are

an abomination unto Jehovah. 2 Kings xxi. 6. he made his son pass through the fire, and observed times, and used enchantments, and dealt with familiar spirits and wizards. Isai. viii. 19. when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep and that mutter; should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead? xliv. 25. I am he that frustrateth the tokens of the liars, and maketh diviners mad. xlvii. 13, 14. let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee: behold, they shall be as stubble. Jer. x. 2. be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. Mic. v. 12. I will cut off witchcrafts out of thine hand, and thou shalt have no more soothsayers.

All study of the heavenly bodies, however, is not unlawful or unprofitable; as appears from the journey of the wise men, and still more from the star itself, divinely appointed to announce the birth of Christ, Matt. ii. 1, 2.

'Thus our Saviour in Paradise Regained, IV. 486.

what they can do as signs

Betok'ning, or ill boding, I contemn

As false portents, not sent from God, but thee:

compared with the words of Satan, v. 379, &c.

Now contrary, if I read aught in heav'n,

Or heav'n write aught of fate, by what the stars
Voluminous, or single characters,

In their conjunction met, give me to spell,
Sorrows and labours, opposition, hate,

Attends thee, scorns, reproaches, injuries,

Violence and stripes, and lastly cruel death.

A kingdom they portend thee, but what kingdom,

Real or allegoric, I discern not.

These last words probably allude to the star, mentioned below, by which the birth of Christ, as King of the Jews,' was announced to the wise men.

CHAP. VI.

OF ZEAL.

WE have treated of the first part of true religion, the invocation or adoration of the Deity; we proceed to the remaining part, THE

SANCTIFICATION OF THE DIVINE NAME UNDER ALL CIRCUMSTANCES.

An ardent desire of hallowing the name of God, together with an indignation against whatever tends to the violation or contempt of religion, is called ZEAL. Psal. lxix. 8, 9. I am become a stranger unto my brethren......for the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. cxix. 139. my zeal hath consumed me, because mine enemies have forgotten thy words. Rom. xii. 11. not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.

Examples of this virtue are seen in Lot, 2 Pet. ii. 7, 8. in Moses, Exod. xxxii. 19. in Phinehas, Num. xxv. 7. in Elijah, 1 Kings xix. 10. in Jeremiah, Jer. xxiii. 9-11. mine heart within me is broken.... for the land is full of adulterers; in Christ, Matt. xii. 30. John ii. 14, &c. in Stephen, Acts vii. 51, &c. in Paul and Barnabas, xiv. 14. and xvii. 16, 17.

Its opposites are, first, lukewarmness, as exemplified in Eli, 1 Sam. ii. 29. and iii. 13. in the chief rulers of the Jews, John xii. 43. in the Laodiceans, Rev. iii. 15, 16.

Secondly, an ignorant and imprudent zeal. 2 Sam. xxi. 1, 3. because he slew the Gibeonites... Saul sought to slay them in his zeal to the children of Israel and Judah. Rom. x. 2. I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.

Thirdly, a too fiery zeal. Jonah iv. 1-3. Luke ix. 54. wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven?

Fourthly, an hypocritical and boastful zeal, as that of Jehu, 2 Kings x. 16. come with me, and see my zeal for Jehovah.

The name of God is to be hallowed in word as well as in deed. To hallow it in word, is never to name it but with a religious purpose, and to make an open profession of the true faith, whenever it is necessary.

The holy or reverential mention of God is inculcated Exod. xx. 7. thou shalt not take the name of Jehovah thy God in vain.

TT

To this is opposed an impious or reproachful mention of God, or, as it is commonly called, blasphemy, from the Greek Baonuia, as in the Hebrew 22 with the root and with the root This was the crime of the Israelitish woman's son, Levit. xxiv. 11. who blasphemed (or expressly named) the name of Jehovah, and cursed (or spake impiously). v. 14. bring forth him that hath cursed without the camp. Such also was that of Rabshakeh and the other Assyrians, 2 Kings xix. 6. be not afraid of the words which thou hast heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me; of the scribes, Mark iii. 22. they said, He hath Beelzebub, compared with v. 29. he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost-, for the scribes had said that the deeds of the Father working in Christ were the deeds of Beelzebub; of those whom Paul before his conversion compelled to blaspheme, Acts xxvi. 11. of the Jews at Corinth, xviii. 6. when they opposed themselves and blasphemed—; of Paul himself in his unconverted state, 1 Tim. i. 13. who was before a blasphemer and a persecutor; of Hymenæus and Alexander, v. 19, 20. that they may learn not to blaspheme, inasmuch as having put away a good conscience concerning faith, they had made shipwreck; of those profane persons mentioned in James ii. 7. do not they blaspheme that worthy name by the which ye are called? of the beast, Rev. xiii. 5, 6. there was given

unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; of the followers of the beast, xvi. 11. they blasphemed the God of heaven, because of their pains and their sores.

Considering, however, that all the Greek writers, sacred as well as profane, use the word blasphemy in a general sense, as implying any kind of reproach against any person whatever, which is also the received usage of the corresponding word in Hebrew, Isai. xliii. 28. I have given Israel to reproaches. li. 7. neither be ye afraid of their revilings; Ezek. v. 15. so it shall be a reproach and a taunt, that is, to the Jews; Zeph. ii. 8. the revilings of the children of Ammon, whereby they have reproached my people; in all which passages the same word is used, being that which we translate blasphemy: so also Matt. xv. 19. false witness, blasphemies. (Compare Mark vii. 22.) 1 Tim. vi. 1. that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed. (Compare Tit. ii. 5.) 2 Pet. ii. 10. they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities (Bλaopnuoûvtes Gr.); v. 11. whereas angels......bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord (Braonμov кpiow Gr.): considering, I say, that such is the meaning invariably attached to the Greek word even by the sacred writers, I am of opinion that those who introduced this foreign term into the Latin language, did wrong in restricting it to the single sense of speaking evil of God; especially since, at the same time that they narrowed its meaning in one direction, they expanded it in another to an almost indefinite vagueness; insomuch that, presuming on the general ignorance as to the true signification of the word, they have not scrupled to brand as blasphemy every opinion differing from their own on the subject of God or religion. This is to resemble the scribes,

Some are ready to cry out, what shall then be done to blasphemy? Them I would first exhort not thus to terrify and pose the people with a Greek word; but to teach them better what it is, being a most usual and common word in that language to signify any slander, any malicious or evil speaking, whether against God or man, or any thing to good belonging. Blasphemy, or evil speaking against God maliciously, is far from conscience in religion. Treatise of Civil Power in Ecclesiastical Causes. Prose Works, III. 824. blasphemiam quo tu pacto evincis? nisi si forte theologorum dictatis quibusvis contradicere, nunc primum blasphemia est credenda. Auctoris pro se Defensio. Prose Works, V. 285.

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