1798. } 
thy) to their charitable regards, as ¢¢ near 
and dear brethren in Chrift, differing 
from themfelves only in a few harmleis 
ceremonies, &c.”’ : 
Query; Wiil Mr, Pit greatly thank 
this author for his high-flown compli- 
“ments, after reading that fentence in 
which he fays, that he is poffeiled of one 
vice “* by which the angels fell 27° 
re ee 
) : 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SiR, 
CONCEIVE, that the paffages in 
Genefis and Exodus, remarked on by 
your correfpondent M. R. Magazine for 
July, are eafily reconcileable. . God was 
known to the patriarchs, Abraham, Ifaac 
and Jacob, by the zome Fehovah, but not 
by the thing it fignified, viz. the accom- 
plifhment of the promife made to Abra- 
ham, of being the peculiar God or fpecial 
protector of his defeendants, God’s cthofen 
people. Abraham and the other patri- 
archs had the promife, but not the thing 
promifed. Heb. xi. 13. Fehovah is God's 
name of relation to that people, fignify- 
ing I will be your God. ‘The patriarchs 
knew he bore that name the promilfe was 
given in that name; but he did not 
manifeft himfelf to them in the charac- 
ter, it implies, at leaft not fo fully, as he 
did to their defcendants, when, and_after, 
he delivered them from Egypt. IJ was 
not known to them by the name of Febovabk, 
does not fignity that they knew not the 
name, but that they knew not the accom- 
plifhment of the thing promifed in that 
name ; at leaft, not in any conipicuous 
degree. The mode of fpeech is not un- 
common in the feriptures and other writ- 
ings. The name Fehovah was under- 
ftood by fome jewish doctors (if not genet 
rally) to be a name of relation to the If 
raelitifh race, as they were God’s pecu- 
Hiar people. Of ail the titles in feripture, 
afcribed to God, the name Fl-/haddat, 
fignifying all-fuficient, or as we ufually 
tranflate, almig ct, is moit properly a name 
of Effence ; or that, which mott properly 
denotes the nature of the fupreme only 
trueGod. Bifhop WARBURTON might 
have obferved this: Fehovah was a name 
ef diftinétion, refpecting God’s promue 
to be peculiarly the God of Ifrael.  é1- 
feaddai was not a name of diftinétion in 
the fame refpect; but a name of diftinc- 
tion it was with refpect to interior Gods : 
3 diftinguithed completely the only true 
God; the God of Irae], ‘from the Gods 
@i Idolaters.: ~ 
at. 
Mr. Wife's Reconciliation of Genefis. and Exodus. 
* 48g 
There is in one of the texts what wilt 
appear to fome a greater dificulty than 
that which embarraffes your correfpon- 
dent: He-builded an altar to ‘fehovak » 
avho appeared to him. ‘The appearance os 
God and Jehovah often occurs in {erip- 
ture; and yet the Jews believed, that the 
Supreme God never literally appeared, or 
was feen or heard in his proper perton. 
See the N. T. His appearance was that 
of an angel in his name. This is evi- 
dent from the pentateuch and feveral paf- 
faves in the books following. In this 
cafe, the language of feripture is not te 
be taken literally. The being, who perifo-~ 
nated God, was the Logos, God the Word,. 
or the Word by whom Ged was perfonated, 
the angel in whom he put his name. See 
Philo. See Juftin Martyr and feveral 
chriftian writers before the firft nicene 
council. ‘This was he, who, by affum- 
ing human fleth, became the Chrift. He 
was the Lord, of whom Devid fpeaks--- 
The Lord fuid unto my Lord, fit thou on my 
right hand, until I make thine enemues thy 
footftéol. This Lord (fays St. Peter, Acts it, 
36) God hath alfo made the very Chrif?, 
even this Fefus whom ye have crucified. So 
fhould the place be tranflated. To this 
correfpond feveral places in the N. T. 
This-Lord was often called Fabovah, or 
bore the name of the real Febovah, as be- 
ing his great reprefentative. Under this 
notion the Jews underftood two Fehovehs. 
In feveral places of {cripture two are difs 
tin&ly mentioned by that name, the one 
as the agent of the other. The penta- 
teuch affords inftances, and fo do fome of 
the other books. See Zech. it. 2, alfe 
xiv. 9. and with the laft compare 1 Cor. 
xv. 28. JOsEPH WISé. 
Poplar, Sept. 8, 1798. 

To tbe Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
T is a circumftance no lefs fingulat 
than true, that mankind in general 
are more attentive to the moft trifling 
and frequently ihSpid purfuits, than to 
thote objects which are moft immediately 
conneéted with their welfare and exit | 
ence. 
In a country which juftly boafts of ma-— 
ny benevolent eftablifhments, of a degree 
of cultivation and public induftry une- 
qualled in the annals of Europe, and of 
good laws, if they were not, like al! other 
human inftitutions fo hable toambiguons 
interpretation, it is fomewhat furpriling 
that aclafs of men, perhaps the moft dc- 
ipicable in fociety, ihould ttill be fuifered, 
aaa 
