Sect. 2.-Christians.

Sect and Heresy.-The term aipɛois,* an election, a choice, was used in our Saviour's time as equivalent to class, party or sect. Thus, it ought to be read also throughout the "Acts of the Apostles ;" not omitting Chap. xxiv. 14; nor is its sense materially different in the Epistles. Among the Jews, however, there were no separate communities formed: the same temple and the same synagogues, were attended alike by Pharisees and by Sadducees; nay, they were often of both parties in the Sanhedrim, and even in the priesthood.

Schism-xioua, often occurs in the New Testament, though rendered schism only once by our translators. Breach or rupture is its literal import: applying to objects merely material, as Matt. ix. 16 or to things indifferent, as John vii. 43; and to the want of affection and cordial unity, as 1 Cor. i. 10. Its Scriptural and Ecclesiastical acceptations do not harmonize.†

Antichristian.-The spirit and practice of Christian Sectarianism are decidedly at variance with the will of Christ, and opposed to the express declarations of his word. What can be more explicit than His own injunctions (Matt. xxiii. 8-12.); or more intelligible than his Apostle's remonstrance (1 Cor. i. 10-17.)! This is the worst "" Antichrist," that our world has ever seen!

Censurable.-But on every ground of correct thinking, as well as of Christian principle, is it to be condemned: in farther proof of which, let the expressive§ words of 1 Tim. vi. 3-5. be philologically and feelingly examined. It is disreputable to the memory of venerated worthies, as if the reformers would have lent their names for exercising domination over the consciences of their successors; it is unphilosophical, for the party names do not fully discriminate the characteristic peculiarities of the persons by whom they are assumed; it is injurious and reproachful, in the extreme, as breaking the much needed oneness of the Saints (Ezek. xxxvii. 15-28.), as inducing a suspicion of the truth of Christianity (John xvii. 21.), as "scattering fire-brands, arrows and death," in the world. O Christians! be consistent; and evince your undivided attachment to "that WORTHY NAME by the which ye are called."

* Prelimin. Dissertat. to the Gospels, by Dr. G. Campbell, Dis. ix. part iv. pages 386-402.

+"Schism in Scriptural use, is one thing, and Schism in Ecclesiastical use, another."-Ib. p. 386.

The learned notes of this celebrated author may here be read, as affording the truest interpretation. iii. pp. 104, 105.

We can read this rebuke of the Corinthians and remain insensible all the while, that the rebuke strikes more severely against us, than it did against them. Has not this been universally the method in the Christian world for many ages?— Lectures on System. Theol. &c. by Dr. G. Campbell, p. 83.

§ Noown K. T. A. sick of questions or of the wrangling disease!-Wilkin's Serm. p. 73.

Nearest akin to the Castes of Hinduism!-For their multiplicity of sects, see Rousseau's Vocab. of East Indies, p. 52.

CHAP. VII.

IDOLATRY.

The allusions to idols and idolatrous practices are exceedingly many; not those which prevailed among the Hebrews only, but among several other nations and people of antiquity. An able survey of these, as represented in the Biblical Writings, would be highly important and valuable.

Sect. 1.-General Allusions.

Idol.]-The word Idol is immediately from dwλov, an image, a representation; corresponding* with the (tsalam) of Numb. xxxiii. 52; or the D (pesal) of Exod. xx. 4; or the

(alilim) of Is. xx. 22; or the (otsab) of Ezek. xliv. 12. The several appellations might not be unworthy of a critical and comparative investigation.

Origin and History. The precise origin and rise of idolatry does not appear from any explicit testimony of historic record. It is conjectured from Gen. vi. 5. compared with Rom. i. 23. to have prevailed before the flood, (Jude iv.). Not long after that period we can trace its history (Gen. xxxi. 19. 30; Josh. xxiv. 2.); but to that historyt a mere reference can now be made.

Hieroglyphics.]-Against the hieroglyphic figures or stones of the Egyptians, the meaning of which was known only to the priests, an express prohibition is recorded in Lev. xxvi. 1; with these stones idolatry was practised. In Egypt they were regarded as the god Thoth; and so late as Ezekiel's days (viii. 8-11.), a species of this prevailed among the Jews.+

Divination. To a very considerable extent was the custom of divining carried, and in Deut. xix. 10. 11. no fewer than seven sorts of diviners into futurity are enumerated. Three kinds of divination|| are particularly mentioned in sacred history; by the cup, as Gen. xliv. 5; by arrows, as Ezek. xxi. 21; and by the staff, as Hos. iv. 12.

Sect. 2.-Idols of the Canaanites.

Baalpeor -A deity of the Moabites and Midianites was Baal-peor,

* See Eidwλov very interestingly illustrated in Mintert's Gr. Lex. of the New Testament.

+"On the Origin, Progress, Prevalence and Decline of Idolatry, by the Rev. George Townsend," the reader may find a series of papers very well written in the Classical Journal, commencing in No. xlii. p. 320, comprising an able review of the elaborate productions of Bryant and Faber, and simplifying the subject in a judicious manner.

Commentaries on the Laws of Moses, by the late Sir J. D. Michaëlis, vol. iv. pp. 54-59.

Amplified and explained in Horne's Crit. Introd. iii. p. 389–391.

(Numb. xxv. 1-3), y, supposed be the same as the Priapus of the Romans, and worshipped with similar obscene rites (Hos. ix. 10; see also Ps. cvi. 28.)*

Rimmon.- Rimmon was an idol of the Syrians, but not worshipped by the Israelites: it is mentioned in 2 Kings v; and is supposed to have been the same as the Jupiter of the ancients.

Astart. Astart (Jud. ii. 3; 1 Sam. xxxi. 10; 1 Kings XXV; 2 Kings xxiii. 13.) is generally understood to have been the moon; though in later times this idol became identified with the Syrian Venus, and was worshipped with impure rites. Astarte is still worshipped by the Druses of Mount Lebanon.

Sect. 3.-Idols of the Greeks and Romans.

Jupiter and Mercury.]-The supreme deity was Ala, Jupiter; and 'Epμns, Mercury, who was the God of eloquence and messenger of the other deities. The allusion to them, in Acts xiv, is well recollected.

Diana.-The Diana (Apreμs) of the Greeks and Romans was worshipped with most solemnity at Ephesus, Acts xix; but time and space would fail to detail particulars here.

CONCLUSION.

In closing the present Division of his Synoptical Outline, the writer must request his readers to excuse the very great brevity which he is obliged to observe; and to supply the obvious deficiencies by their own farther researches in this hitherto unfathomed mine of heavenly treasure.

[NATURAL SCIENCE in the next.]

Manchester.

J. W.

* Hence the learned Selden conceived that this idol was the same as Pluto.-De Diis. Syris. Syntag.

Biblical Criticism.

ON THE SYRIAC TERM TRANSLATED “BAPTISM.”

THE learned and very ingenious Editor of Calmet, in an article entitled as above, in the "Fragments," (No. 615.) subjoined to that work, has strenuously contended that the Syriac word for Baptism wholly militates against the idea of immersion, as practised by our brethren the Baptists. I am far from being a convert to their system, and still farther from wishing to make converts of others; but I think candour and truth require an investigation of the worthy and laudable writer's statement. His words are the following:

"We have said that John was distinguished as THE BAPTIST; and it is certain that he used the Syriac language, it is no less certain that Jesus also spake in Syriac, aud in that language he gave his commands. It has often appeared to me wonderful, that gentlemen who attach peculiar importance to a certain term not unfrequent in the Gospel History, should be content to investigate a translation of the original term, when reference to the original itself would settle its import completely. When John said, I baptize,' he did not speak Greek, but Syriac; when our Lord commissioned his Apostles (Matt. xxviii. 19.), 'Go, baptize all nations,'— he certainly used the Syriac term in the Syriac sense; and what that sense is, the books of these Baptists determine with ample evidence. To avoid mistake, I give entire NORBERG's explanation of the word, as it stands in his Index. :

66 6

"yay intinxit, baptizavit. Et pe. Pass. It. colorem traxit. vol. i. p. 34. 9. baptizemini; baptizare animas vestras, iii. 66. 13. Dicam vobis de vestibus albis, ex quibus hi versicolores colorem suum traxerunt. V, tinctura, lavacrum, digiti. Chaldee, Day, versicolor.-Duodecim versicolores-fictæ imagines, pictaque imagines.'

"y, to stain with colours, to baptize, and especially, in various places, it means to draw a colour [over a white surface] vol. i. p. 34. line 9. Be baptised; to baptise your persons, iii. p. 66. l. 13. I speak to you of your white garments, over which a variety of colours have been drawn, i. e. baptized, yy, coloured fluids; baths [in which coloured fluids are contained ?]; fingers. It answers to the Chaldee Way, changing colours [or, stripes].— Twelve changing colours [or, stripes of twelve different colours] a statue painted of the colours of life,—a picture painted the natural colours of the figure.'

"The import of the Chaldee term referred to, may easily be understood from Jer. xii. 9; my heritage is to me as a speckled bird; but, if this denote the striped hyæna, as Bochart contends,

• From the similarity of the Syriac letters y and, it is erroneously printed bas, and as, &c., in the original article of the Fragments. W. G. We have adopted the Hebrew instead of the Syriac character, as being more generally known.-Ed.

or a mottled serpent, as others suppose, the import of the term is equally preserved. And again, from Judg. v. 30.-To Sisera a prey of divers colours of needle work, of diver colours of needle work on both sides.' What is truly remarkable in these passages is, that the variegations of the colours have nothing to do with the intervention of moisture, or wetting, in any form whatever.

6

"If then, a picture painted the natural colours of life, is said in the Syriac to be baptized, if by such painting a statue is baptized,if the same garment be baptized of twelve different colours-if man observes to woman, The white garment that you wore formerly was handsome enough, why is it now baptized with a running patern of flowers? [this is the sense of the passage referred to by NORBERG], -if the Syriac term radically and primarily means to draw a colour over a surface; to stain it;-how say some that baptism is nothing but dipping? Can a garment be dipped so as to produce stripes on it stripes of TWELVE different colours, in the same piece? Can a running pattern of flowers be obtained by dipping? Can a picture, a statue, be coloured with the natural colours of life, in their proper places, by dipping? The thing is impossible. And this illustration admits of no appeal: we are now at the fountain head: we are bound to acknowledge that our Lord, as well as John the Baptist, employed this Syriac term in the Syriac sense of it; in that of its daily application, in which the Apostles, who spoke this language, would understand it. In fact, in this sense it is used in the New Testament; for when the Apostle writing to the Hebrews (ix. 13.), mentions diverse baptisms, as, the sprinkling of the blood of bulls and goats'-that was staining; the sprinkling of the ashes of the heifer'-that was staining; and as such, no doubt, it Would appear when it fell on linen, or other white garments. Was not this its intention, as a ritual token, visible to all?”

All this might be well enough if y(tzeva) were the only Syriac word used for Baptism, or if to stain or streak with colours were the only, or primary, sense of that word: but unfortunately this is not the case: (tzeva, the word in question,) occurs but a few times in the ancient Syriac version of the New Testament, the Pesheeto, and never in the sense of baptizing or sprinkling, but either in that of dipping or washing. Thus in Matt. xxvi. 23. "And he answered and said, He who dippeth, y, (detzova) his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray me:" and so also in the parallel passages, Mark xiv. 20; John xiii. 26: and in Luke xvi. 24. it is said of the rich man that " he cried with a loud voice and said, O Father Abraham, have mercy upon me, and send Lazarus that he may dip, ya (denetzyoo) the top of his finger in water and moisten my tongue, for lo! I am grievably tormented in this flame:" and again in Luke vii. 33. (and also 44.) "And she stood behind him at his feet, and wept and began to wash, NY (metzavo), his feet with her tears." In the passage of the Epistle to the Hebrews to which the editor of Calmet refers, the word is not yy, but DD, which properly denotes to sprinkle, adspersit,-conspersit, SCHAAF. The word y occurs also a few times in the Syriac version of the Old Testament, and is