Trinitarian, we meet no more with language such as that which I have quoted; a sure sign that a change of sentiments took place about this time.

The second assertion of " A Presbyterian" is, that all who, during the first three centuries, denied the Divinity of Jesus Christ and of the Holy Ghost were constantly considered heretics, and as such expelled from the church. Now this assertion is, if possible, still more unlucky than the first. In addition to the mass of evidence already produced, I shall give only that of Mosheim, a Trinitarian, and the best of our ecclesiastical historians. Speaking of the famous Arian controversy, he says (Ecclesiastical History, Vol. I. p. 411), "Soon after its commencement, even in the year 317, a new contention arose in Egypt, upon a subject of much higher importance, and with consequences of a yet more pernicious nature. The subject of this fatal controversy, which kindled such deplorable division throughout the Christian world, was the doctrine of three Persons in the Godhead; a doctrine which in the three preceding centuries had happily escaped the vain curiosity of human researches, and been left undefined and undetermined by any particular set of ideas. The church, indeed, had frequently decided against the Sabellians and others, that there was a real difference between the Father and the Son, and that the Holy Ghost was distinct from them both, or, as we commonly speak, that three distinct Persons exist in the Deity; but the mutual relation of these Persons to each other, and the nature of that distinction that subsists between them, are matters that hitherto were neither disputed nor explained, and with respect to which the church had, consequently, observed a profound silence. Nothing was dictated to the faith of Christians in this matter; nor were there any modes of expression prescribed as requisite to be used in speaking of this mystery. Hence it happened that the Christian doctors entertained different sentiments upon this subject without giving the least offence, and discoursed variously concerning the distinctions between Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; each one following his respective opinion with the utmost liberty." Mosheim also tells us, Vol. I. p. 213, that the Nazarenes were Unitarians, and that they were never reckoned among the heretics by the early Christians. He says that Epiphanius, a writer of the fourth century, is the first who places them among the heretics. On these admissions of Mosheim I would remark, that they are

utterly irreconcilable with the Trinitarianism of the first three centuries. That while all believed Christ to be a subordinate being, all should live in harmony, though some believed somewhat differently as to the mode of his existence from what others did, this is perfectly natural, and what we see in our own days; but that some should have deemed him to be the Supreme, Self-existing Jehovah, the true object of religious worship, and that others should have believed him to be a subordinate, dependent being, and yet that this difference of sentiment should never have produced dispute or gainsaying between the parties, this is utterly impossible. The history of our own time shows that it is so.

The third and fourth points made by "A Presbyterian " assert that Christ was, during the first ages, the object of prayer among Christians. On this head, in addition to what Lactantius says on this subject, as already noted, I wish to produce Origen, who says, "If we know what prayer is, we must not pray to any created being, not to Christ himself, but only to God, the Father of all, to whom our Saviour himself prayed." "We are not to pray to a brother, who has the same common Father with ourselves; Jesus himself saying that we must pray to the Father through him. In this we are all agreed, and are not divided about the method of prayer; but should we not be divided, if some prayed to the Father, and some to the Son?" And Eusebius says, "Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, and the first-born of every creature, teaches us to call his Father the only true God, and commands us to worship him only." ‡

I flatter myself I have now proved that "A Presbyterian " was totally in error in the first four points made by him. Before I have done, I hope also to establish that he has equally mistaken the decrees of the Council of Nice. But it is time that I should pass to a higher species of evidence to establish the Unitarianism of the first three centuries.

[The remainder in the next Number.]

* De Oratione, p. 48.

Præpar. Lib. VII. Cap. 15, p. 327.

↑ De Orat. p. 51.

387

Malcolm and Witchcraft.

IN Malcolm's " Dictionary of the Bible", under the article Witch, there is the following sentence:-"That such persons," that is, witches, "have been found among men is abundantly plain from Scripture"; and in proof of this assertion he points to several passages, which it is the object of this article to notice. We did not suppose, however, that any person of any literary eminence would, at the present day, defend the doctrine of witchcraft, though the expression occurs several times in the common version of the Bible. A witch, in the common acceptation of the term, we suppose to mean one who has connexion with some evil, invisible power. This superstition was popular at the time our present version of the Bible was made; it is not, therefore, surprising that phraseology favouring this notion should have been used by the translators, in rendering certain words rather of a vague meaning, especially when it is borne in mind that king James, their patron, was a firm believer in the doctrine of witchcraft. It has been a great misfortune both to religion and humanity, that this word ever found a place in our English Bible. As it is stated in Exodus, chap. xxii. 18, according to the common version, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live," ignorant and bigoted men have claimed a warrant to execute capital punishment on those who were deemed guilty of this supposed crime; and the result has been that many innocent persons both in this country and Europe have lost their lives. But we venture to affirm that there is no passage in the Bible that can be said to give the least support to this superstitious notion.

The Greek version of the Old Testament, which was made by learned Jews about 200 years before the Christian era, and which was used by Christ and the apostles, as their quotations from it evidently show, may be considered a valuable commentary on those ancient Scriptures, and enable us to arrive at the correct meaning of those passages in which the words Witch and Witchcraft are found. The word translated Witch is in Greek* a medical term, from which our English word, Pharmacy, is derived. It literally means A mixer of drugs. Hence this term is applied to that class of impostors called necromancers, sorcerers, and jugglers, who practised in

cantations by the use of drugs and other deceptive arts, to impose on the credulous multitude. Thus the passage in Exodus already noticed means nothing more than this: "Thou shalt not protect sorcerers." This word occurs again in Deuteronomy, xviii. 10, in connexion with another, which is usually translated "having a familiar spirit ", but which in the Greek means one that has the wonderful faculty of speaking from the chest, literally, A belly-speaker, or, in the language of the present day, A ventriloquist. Such was the woman of Endor whom Saul consulted. She is said to have had a familiar spirit, which led the translators to pronounce her a witch, as appears from the caption of the chapter. Hence we hear so much of the witch of Endor. The passage noticed in Deuteronomy is in the Greek version as follows: "Let there not be found among you anyone.... who practiseth divinations, or consulteth omens or augury, or maketh use of drugs to practise incantation, or a belly-speaker, or an astrologer, or a necromancer; for everyone who practiseth such things is an abomination to the Lord thy God." This we believe to be the true meaning of the passage, and it will be readily perceived how little support it gives to the doctrine of witchcraft.

The word Witchcraft occurs several times, and in Galatians v. 20, it is reckoned among "the works of the flesh.” The word rendered Witchcraft is a derivative from the one which is in the English version rendered Witch, and means the art of practising incantations, or sleight of hand, an art which the Jews were taught to regard as odious and immoral; hence the Jewish lawgiver and succeeding prophets spoke against those who practised it with unmeasured severity. It was an art derived from the heathen, which was another circumstance why the Jews were to regard it with so great aversion. There is no evidence that those who were instructed in this art were supernaturally gifted, or that they knew or practised anything which is any-wise akin to what in later times has been ignorantly and superstitiously called Witchcraft.

P. SMITH, JR.

Φαρμακεία.

NOTICES OF BOOKS.

The Holy Land and Its Inhabitants.
Cambridge. James Munroe & Co.

By S. G. BULFINCH.

24mo.

pp. 298.

We have long felt the want of a little work, like this, containing a condensed account of the Holy Land and its inhabitants, adapted to popular use. In order to understand the Scriptures it is necessary to have a general acquaintance, at least, with the character and condition, with the manners, customs, and opinions, with the domestic, political, and religious institutions of the people among whom the events recorded took place. But, independently of this consideration, we all feel a peculiar interest in everything that relates to a land and a nation in which our Saviour began and fulfilled his great mission, and to which our religious associations are so strongly bound.

"The traveller," says Mr. Bulfinch, "may pause and meditate on the plains of Greece, and feel that her departed wise and great have left a portion of their spirit in the air they once breathed, the footsteps of their power on the soil they once trod; but is there not a holier feeling, the consciousness of a loftier presence, to the pilgrim standing on the hill of Zion, within the scenes of David's power? What classic recollections can equal those which to the Christian render Palestine another home, and Jerusalem a city of the soul? In those streets his Saviour taught; among the olives on that hill he withdrew to meditate with his disciples; in yonder village he wept over his buried friend, then spoke the word of power, and the grave gave up its dead; in that garden he poured forth the prayer of agony; on that hill he died. Let the Christian often wander through scenes like these, that his interest in the word of God, his knowledge, his piety may be increased." - p. 2, 3.

The object of Mr. Bulfinch's work is to present a condensed account of the history, the laws, the religious rites, and domestic customs of the Jews. The first chapter contains a description of the geography, climate, scenery, &c. of the Holy Land. In the six following chapters we have a judicious abridgement of the history of the Jewish people, from the call of Abraham to the present time. The five following chapters are occupied with an account of the religious institutions, festivals, and ceremonies of the Jews; of their civil and judicial polity; of war, commerce, agriculture, and the arts and sciences among them; and, finally, of their domestic customs and usages.