a John xiii. 17. _b Or, doing. Ps. xxxiv. 13. xxxix. 1. d Isai. i. 16, 17. lviii. 6, 7. Matt. xxv. 36.1 Pet. iii. 10. Ch. iv. 4. 1 John v. 18. Le Rom. xii. 2. Verse 26. Seem to be religious] The words Opnokos and Opnoksia, which we translate religious and religion (see the next verse), are of very uncertain etymology. Suidas, under the word Opηokeve, which he translates OεOTEBEL, VπηPETEL Tois Oɛois, he worships or serves the gods, accounts for the derivation thus: "It is said that Orpheus, a Thracian, instituted the mysteries (or religious rites) of the Greeks, and called the worshipping of God Opŋoreveiv threskeuein, as being a Thracian invention." Whatever its derivation may be, the word is used both to signify true religion, and superstition or heterodoxy. See Hesychius, and see on verse 27. Bridleth not his tongue] He who speaks not according to the oracles of God, whatever pretences he makes to religion, only shows, by his want of scriptural knowledge, that his religion is false, parais, or empty of solid truth, profit to others, and good to himself. Such a person should bridle his tongue, put the bit in his mouth; and particularly if he be a professed teacher of religion; no matter where he has studied, or what else he has learned, if he have not learned religion, he can never teach it. And religion is of such a nature that no man can learn it but by experience; he who does not feel the doctrine of God to be the power of God to the salvation of his soul, can neither teach religion, nor act according to its dictates, because he is an unconverted, unrenewed man. If he be old, let him retire to the desert, and pray to God for light; if he be in the prime of life, let him turn his attention to some honest calling; if he be young, let him tarry at Jericho till his beard grows. Verse 27. Pure religion, and undefiled] Having seen something of the etymology of the word Opnokela, which we translate religion, it will be well to consider the etymology of the word religion itself. In the 28th chapter of the Ivth book of his Divine Institutions, LACTANTIUS, who flourished about A. D. 300, treats of hope, true religion, and superstition; of the two latter he gives Cicero's definition from his book De Natura Deorum, lib. ii., c. 28, which with his own definition will lead us to a correct view, not only of the etymology, but of the thing itself. 1832 "Superstition," according to that philosopher, "had its name from the custom of those who offered daily prayers and sacrifices, that their children might SURVIVE THEM; ut sui sibi liberi superstites essent. Hence they were called superstitiosi, superstitious. On the other hand, religion, religio, had its name from those who, not satisfied with what was commonly spoken concerning the nature and worship of the gods, searched into the whole matter, and perused the writings of past times; hence they were called religiosi, from re, again, and lego, I read." This definition Lactantius ridicules, and shows that religion has its name from re, intensive, and ligo, I bind, because of that bond of piety by which it binds us to God; and this he shows was the notion conceived of it by Lucretius, who laboured to dissolve this bond, and make men Atheists. Primum quod magnis doceo de rebus, et ARCTIS As to superstition, he says it derived its name from those who paid religious veneration to the memory of the dead (qui superstitem memoriam defunctorum colunt), or from those who, surviving their parents, worshipped their images at home, as household gods; aut qui, parentibus suis superstites, colebant imagines eorum domi, tanquam deos penates. Superstition, according to others, refers to novel rites and ceremonies in religion, or to the worship of forms of worship belonging to those gods, which new gods. But by religion are meant the ancient had long been received. Hence that saying of Virgil: Vana superstitio veterumque ignara deorum. "Vain superstition not knowing the ancient gods." Here Lactantius observes, that as the ancient gods were consecrated precisely in the same way with these new ones, that therefore it was nothing but superstition from the beginning. Hence he asserts, the superstitious are those who worship many and false gods, and the Christians alone are religious, who worship and supplicate the one true God only. St. James's definition rather refers to the effects of pure religion than to its nature. soul of man, producing love to God and man, will The life of God in the show itself in the acts which St. James mentions here. It is pure in the principle, for it is divine truth and divine love. It is undefiled in all its operations it can produce nothing unholy, because it ever acts in the sight of God; and it can produce no ungentle word nor unkind act, because it comes from the Father. The words kabapa kai apuavros, pure and undefiled, are supposed to have reference to a diamond or precious stone, whose perfection consists in its being free from flaws; not cloudy, but of a pure water. True religion is the ornament of the soul, and its effects, the ornament of the life. To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction] Works of charity and mercy are the proper changeableness of all things. Which makes me loath this state of life so tickle, Then gin I think on that which Nature sayd, Of that same time when no more change shall be, sight!" fruits of religion; and none are more especially the O that great Sabaoth God, grant me that Sabaoth's objects of charity and mercy than the orphans and widows. False religion may perform acts of mercy and charity; but its motives not being pure, and its principle being defiled, the flesh, self, and hypocrisy, spot the man, and spot his acts. True religion does not merely give something for the relief of the distressed, but it visits them, it takes the oversight of them, it takes them under its care; so εжLOKETTEσ0αι means. It goes to their houses, and speaks to their hearts; it relieves their wants, sympathizes with them in their distresses, instructs them in divine things, and recommends them to God. And all this it does for the Lord's sake. This is the religion of Christ. The religion that does not prove itself by works of charity and mercy is not of God. Reader, | what religion hast thou? Has thine ever led thee' to cellars, garrets, cottages, and houses, to find out the distressed? Hast thou ever fed, clothed, and visited a destitute representative of Christ? The subject in verse 11 suggests several reflections on the mutability of human affairs, and the end of all things. 1. Nature herself is subject to mutability, though by her secret and inscrutable exertions she effects her renovation from her decay, and thus change is prevented from terminating in destruction. Yet nature herself is tending, by continual mutations, to a final destruction; or rather to a fixed state, when time, the place and sphere of mutability, shall be absorbed in eternity. Time and nature are coeval; they began and must terminate together. All changes are efforts to arrive at destruction or renovation; and destruction must be the term or bound of all created things, had not the Creator purposed that his works should endure for ever. According to his promise, we look for a new heaven and a new earth; a fixed, permanent, and endless state of things; an everlasting sabbath to all the works of God. I shall confirm these observations with the last verses of that incomparable poem, the Faery Queene, of our much neglected but unrivalled poet, Edmund Spenser: "When I bethink me on that speech whylear, Me seems, that though she all unworthy were When this is to be the glorious issue, who can regret the speedy lapse of time? Mutability shall end in permanent perfection, when time, the destroyer of all things, shall be absorbed in eternity. And what has a righteous man to fear from that "wreck of matter and that crush of worlds," which to him shall usher in the glories of an eternal day? A moralist has said, "Though heaven shall vanish like a vapour, and this firm globe of earth shall crumble into dust, the righteous man shall stand unmoved amidst the shocked depredations of a crushed world; for he who hath appointed the heavens and the earth to fail, hath said unto the virtuous soul, Fear not! for thou shalt neither perish nor be wretched." Dr. Young has written most nervously, in the spirit of the highest order of poetry, and with the knowledge and feeling of a sound divine, on this subject in his Night Thoughts. Night vi. in fine. Of man immortal hear the lofty style: "If so decreed, th' Almighty will be done. After him, and borrowing his imagery and ideas, another of our poets, in canticis sacris facile princeps, has expounded and improved the whole in the following hymn on the Judgment. "Stand the Omnipotent decree, And hear her final groan. In death the wicked and the just; Rests secure the righteous man; And mount above the wreck. Thoughts on the Lo! the heavenly spirit towers And claps her wings of fire. Nothing hath the just to lose By worlds on worlds destroyed; Far beneath his feet he views, With smiles, the flaming void; Sees the universe renewed; The grand millennial reign begun ; Shouts with all the sons of God WESLEY. JAMES. Around th' eternal throne." One word more, and I shall trouble my reader no further on a subject on which I could wear out my pen and drain the last drop of my ink. The learned reader will join in the wish. "Talia sæcla suis dixerunt, currite, fusis Concordes stabili fatorum numine Parcæ. Aggredere O magnos (aderit jam tempus!) honores, Cara Deum soboles, magnum Jovis incrementum. Aspice convexo nutantem pondere mundum, Terrasque, tractusque maris, cœlumque profundum: Aspice, venturo lætentur ut omnia sæclo. O mihi tam longæ maneat pars ultima vitæ, Spiritus, et quantum sat erit tua dicere facta!" VIRG. Eclog. iv. There has never been a translation of this, worthy of the poet; and to such a piece I cannot persuade myself to append the hobbling verses of Mr. Dryden. 2. Taken in every point of view, the 17th verse is one of the most curious and singular in the New Testament. It has been well observed, that the first words make a regular Greek hexameter verse, supposed to be quoted from some Greek poet not now extant; and the last clause of the verse, with a very little change, makes another hexameter: Πασα δοσις αγαθή, και παν δωρημα τέλειον, Εστ' απο των φωτων Πατρος καταβαινον ανωθεν. "Every goodly gift, and every perfect donation, Is from the Father of lights, and from above it descendeth." The first line, which is incontestably a perfect hexameter, may have been designed by St. James, or in the course of composition may have originated from accident, a thing which often occurs to all good writers; but the sentiment itself is immediately from heaven. I know not that we can be justified by sound criticism in making any particular distinction between doois and dwonμa our translators have used the same word in rendering both. They are often synonymous; but sometimes we may observe a shade of difference, doog signifying a gift of any kind, here probably meaning earthly blessings of all sorts, dwonμa signifying a free gift-one that comes without constraint, from the mere benevolence of the giver; and here it may signify all spiritual and eternal blessings. Now all these come from above; God is as much the AUTHOR of our earthly good, as he is of our eternal salvation. Earthly blessings are simply good; but they are imperfect, they perish in the using. The blessings of grace and glory are supreme goods, they changeableness of all things. are permanent and perfect; and to the gift that includes these the term reλelov, perfect, is here properly added by St. James. There is a sentiment very similar to this in the ninth Olympic Ode of Pindar, 1.41: -Αγαθοι δε Και σοφοι κατα Δαιμον' ανδρες. Man, boast of nought: whate'er thou hast is given; But how tame is even Pindar's verse when compared with the energy of James! 3. In the latter part of the verse, wap & our wi παραλλαγη, η τρόπης αποσκιασμα, which we translate, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning, there is an allusion to some of the most abstruse principles in astronomy. This is not accidental, for every word in the whole verse is astronomical. In his Πατηρ των φωτων, Father of lights, there is the most evident allusion to the SUN, who is the father, author, or source of all the lights or luminaries proper to our system. It is not only his light which we enjoy by day, but it is his light also which is reflected to us, from the moon's surface, by night. And it is demonstrable that all the planetsMercury, Venus, the Earth, the Moon, Mars, Ceres, Pallas, Juno, Vesta, Jupiter, Saturn, Saturn's Rings, and Herschel, or the Georgium Sidus, with the four the six satellites of the Georgium Sidus, thirty-one satellites of Jupiter, the seven satellites of Saturn, and bodies in all, besides the comets, all derive their light from the sun, being perfectly opaque or dark in themselves; the sun being the only luminous body in our system; all the rest being illumined by him. The word apaλλayn, which we translate variableness, from rapaxλarrw, to change alternately, to pass in astronomy. To give a proper idea of what astrofrom one change to another, evidently refers to parallas nomers mean by this term, it must be premised that all the diurnal motions of the heavenly bodies from east to west are only apparent, being occasioned by the rotation of the earth upon its axis in an opposite direction in about twenty-four hours. These diurnal motions are therefore performed uniformly round the axis or polar diameter of the earth, and not round the place of the spectator, who is upon the earth's sur face. Hence every one who observes the apparent motion of the heavens from this surface will find that this motion is not even, equal arches being described in unequal times; for if a globular body, such as the earth, describe equally the circumference of a circle by its rotatory motion, it is evident the equality of this motion can be seen in no other points than those in the axis of the circle, and therefore any object viewed from the centre of the earth will appear in a different place from what it does when observed from the surface. This difference of place of the same object, seen at the same time from the earth's centre and surface, is called its parallax. As I shall make some further use of this point, in order to make it plain to those who are not much acquainted with the subject, to which I am satisfied St. James alludes, I shall introduce the following diagram: On the doctrine of Parallax, CHAP. I. alluded to in verse 17. The horizontal parallax being given, the distance of the object from the earth's centre, EA or EI, may be readily found in semidiameters of the earth by the resolution of the right-angled triangle OEA, in which we have given the angle OAE, the horizontal parallax, the side OE, the semidiameter of the earth, considered as unity, and the right angle AOE, to find the side EA, the distance of the object from the earth's centre. The proportion to be used in this case is : The sine of the horizontal parallax is to unity, the semidiameter of the earth; as radius, i. e. the right Let the circle OKNS, in the annexed figure, represent the earth, E its centre, O the place of an observer on its surface, whose visible or sensible horizon is OH, and the line EST, parallel to OH, the rational, true, or mathematical horizon. Let ZDFT be considered a portion of a great circle in the heavens, and A the place of an object in the visible horizon. Join EA by a line produced to C: then C is the true place of the object, and H is its apparent place; and the angle CAH is its parallax; and, because the object is in the horizon, it is called its horizontal parallax. As OAE, the angle which the earth's radius or semi-angle AOE, the sine of ninety degrees being the diameter subtends at the object, is necessarily equal to its opposite angle CAH, hence the horizontal parallax of an object is defined to be the angle which the earth's semidiameter subtends at that object. The whole effect of parallax is in a vertical direc-be the logarithm of the answer. tion; for the parallactic angle is in the plane passing through the observer and the earth's centre, which plane is necessarily perpendicular to the horizon, the earth being considered as a sphere. The more elevated an object is above the horizon, the less the parallax, the distance from the earth's centre continuing the same. To make this sufficiently clear, let B represent an object at any given altitude above the visible Remainder the logarithm of 57-2987 1-7581447 horizon OAH; then the angle DBF, formed by the straight lines OB and EB produced to F and D, will be the parallax of the object at the given altitude, and is less than the parallax of the same object when in the visible horizon OAH, for the angle DBF is less than the angle CAH. Hence the horizontal parallax is the greatest of all diurnal parallaxes; and when the object is in the zenith, it has no parallax, the visual ray passing perpendicularly from the object hrough the observer to the earth's centre, as in the radius of a circle, is to the side EA. This proportion is very compendiously wrought by logarithms as follows: Subtract the logarithmic sine of the horizontal parallax from 10, the radius, and the remainder will ine ZOE. Example. When the moon's horizontal parallax is a degree, what is her distance from the earth's centre in semidiameters of the earth? 10.0000000 8.2418553 From the radius, Which is the distance of the moon in semidiameters of the earth, when her horizontal parallax amounts to a degree. If 57-2987 be multiplied by 3977, the English miles contained in the earth's semidiameter, the product, 2278769, will be the moon's distance from the earth's centre in English miles. The sun's horizontal parallax is about eight seconds and three-fifths, as is evident from the phenomena attending the transits of Venus, of 1761 and 1769, as observed in different parts of the world: a method of obtaining the solar parallax abundantly less liable to be materially affected by error of observation than that of Hipparchus, who lived between the 154th and 163rd Olympiad, from lunar eclipses; or than that of Aristarchus the Samian, from the moon's dichotomy; or even than that of modern astronomers from the parallax of Mars when in opposition, and, at the same time, in or near his perihelion. The sun's horizontal parallax being scarcely the four hundred and eighteenth part of that of the moon given in the preceding example, if 227876-9, the distance of the moon as found above, be multiplied by 418·6 (for the horizontal parallax decreases nearly in proportion as the distance increases), the product will be the distance of the sun from the earth's centre, which will be found to be upwards of ninety-five millions of English miles. The When we know the horizontal parallax of any object, its magnitude is easily determined. apparent diameter of the sun, for example, at his mean distance from the earth, is somewhat more than thirty-two minutes of a degree, which is at least a hundred and eleven times greater than the double of the sun's horizontal parallax, or the apparent diameter of the earth as seen from the sun; therefore, the real solar diameter must be at least a hundred and eleven times greater than that of the earth; i.e. On the doctrine of Parallax, JAMES. alluded to in verse 17. upwards of 880,000 English miles. And as spherical | with what propriety St. James has introduced them; bodies are to each other as the cubes of their dia- and through this his great object is at once discernmeters, if 111 be cubed, we shall find that the mag-ible. It is evident from this chapter that there were nitude of the sun is more than thirteen hundred thousand times greater than that of the earth. a fit emblem of God, yet in several respects the metaphor is very imperfect; for the sun himself is liable to repeated obscurations; and although, as to his mass, he is in the focus of the system, giving light and heat to all, yet he is not every where present, and both his light and heat may be intercepted by a great variety of opposing bodies, and other causes. persons, among those to whom he wrote, that held very erroneous opinions concerning the divine nature; The whole effect of parallax being in a vertical viz. that God tempted or influenced men to sin, circle, and the circles of the sphere not being in this and, consequently, that he was the author of all the direction, the parallax of a star will evidently change evil that is in the world; and that he withholds his its true place with respect to these different circles; light and influence when necessary to convey truth whence there are five kinds of diurnal parallaxes, and to correct vice. To destroy this error he shows viz. the parallax of longitude, parallax of latitude, | that though the sun, for its splendour, genial heat, and parallax of ascension or descension, parallax of decli- | general utility to the globe and its inhabitants, may be nation, and parallax of altitude, the last of which has been already largely explained; and the meaning of the first four, simply, is the difference between the true and visible longitude, latitude, right ascension, and declination of an object. Besides these there is another kind of parallax, called by modern astronomers the parallax of the earth's ANNUAL ORBIT, by which is meant the difference between the places of a planet as seen from the sun and the earth at the same time, the former being its true or heliocentric place, and the latter its apparent or geocentric place. The ancient astronomers gave the term parallax only to the diurnal apparent inequalities of motion in the moon and planets; Ptolemy, who lived in the second century, calling prosaphæresis orbis what is now named the parallax of the great or annual orbit. This parallax is more considerable than the diurnal parallax, as the earth's annual orbit is more considerable than the earth's semidiameter. This parallax, when greatest, amounts in Mars, the nearest superior planet, to upwards of forty-seven degrees; in Jupiter to near twelve degrees; in Saturn to more than six degrees, &c. In the region of the nearest fixed stars, i. e. those new ones of 1572 and 1604, double the radius of the earth's orbit does not subtend an angle of a single minute of a degree; whence it is evident the nearest fixed stars are at least hundreds of times morc distant from us than the Georgium Sidus is, whose greatest annual parallax amounts to upwards of three degrees. The annual parallaxes of the fixed stars are, in general, too minute to be measured; hence their distances from the earth must be inconceivably great. Any further description of parallax would be useless in reference to the subject to be illustrated. The words Toons añoσkiaopa, shadow of turning, either refer to the darkness in which the earth is involved in consequence of its turning round its axis once in every twenty-four hours, by means of which one hemisphere, or half of its surface, is involved in darkness, being hidden from the sun by the opposite hemisphere; or to the different portions of the earth which come gradually into the solar light by its revolution round its orbit, which, in consequence of the pole of the earth being inclined nearly twentythree degrees and a half to the plane of its orbit, and keeping its parallelism through every part of its revolution, causes all the vicissitudes of seasons, with all the increasing and decreasing proportions of light and darkness, and of cold and heat. Every person who understands the images will see St. James refers particularly to the divine ubiquity or omnipresence. Wherever his light and energy are, there is he himself; neither his word ver his Spirit gives false or inconsistent views of his nature and gracious purposes. He has no paralics, because he is equally present every where, and inti mately near to all his creatures; HE is never en where he is not, or not seen where he is. He is the God and Father of all; who is ABOVE all, and THROUGH all, and IN all; "in the wide waste, as in the city full;" nor can any thing be hidden from his light and heat. There can be no opposing bodies to prevent him from sending forth his light and truth, because he is every where essentially present. He suffers no eclipses; he changes not in his nature; be varies not in his designs; he is ever a full, free, and eternal fountain of mercy, goodness, truth, and good will, to all his intelligent offspring. Hallelujah, the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth! Amen. In concluding these observations, I think it neces sary to refer to Mr. Wakefield's translation of this text, and his vindication of that translation: Evera good gift, and every perfect kindness, cometh down from above, from the Father of lights, with whom is wo parallax, nor tropical shadow. "Some have affected" says he, "to ridicule my translation of this verse; it be obscure, the author must answer for that, and not the translator. Why should we impoverish the sacred writers, by robbing them of the learning and science they display? Why should we conceal in them what we should ostentatiously point out in profane authors? And if any of these wise, learned, and judicious critics think they understand the phrase shadow of turning, I wish they would condescend to explain it." Yes, if such a sentiment were found in Aratus, or in any other ancient astronomical writer, whole pages of commentary would be written on it, and the subtle doctrine of the parallactic angle proved to be well known in itself, and its use in determining the distances and magnitudes of the heavenly bodies, to the ancients some hundreds of years before the Christian era. The sentiment is as elegant as it is just, and |