Serle - BT590 N2 S47 1776

C 63 1 GOD, moving, * flying, or brooding, upon the Face of' the Waters. The Eaft Indians have an Idol with three Heads upon one Body (the Defcription of which is well known) in great Veneration among them, called JACKERNATS, or JAGARYNATS And the yet more Eaftern Chinefe have another, nearly fimilar in Form, which they name SAN PAO, and which, as it affords an Idea, though a vile one, of the Trinity, is thought by fome (fays Dr. Hyde) to be a Relick of Chriftianity formerly received among them. If, by Chriftianity, he means the patriarchal Re- ligion, the Opinion is highly probable. The Chinefe have alfo an Idol, called Tien-chù, the fame with Baal- ¡amen, Lord of Heaven, and another called Shangh-Ti, which is rendered, Supreme Governor of the Univerfe. t Whether Shangh.Ti be a Corruption of the Hebrew Shaddai, or not ; the Senfe of both is the fame. It mutt however be confeffed, upon the Teftimony of F. Longobardi in Navarette's Account ofChina, that the molt learned SeEt of the Chinefe is compofed of no other than (what would here be called) Spinozs or Ma- terialifts, and that thefe laugh at the Chriftian Account .. of an immaterial omnipotent Deity, who created and governs all things. Human Reafon is the. fame both in Greeks and Chinefe, and in both equally loft in its un- afliifted Refearches after GOD. $ The The Idea of the original Word feems to be taken both from Motion by Wings and Incubation with Wings, and has, confequetltly, an equal Reference to pervading Mobility, and generating Influ- ence. A remarkable .Paffage occurs in z Sam. xxii. I s. which the Tranflators have rendered, He [Jehovah] wasflea upon the Wings of the Wind; but which, perhaps, might have been more juftly turned, wasPeen upon the Wings of she SPIRIT. TheWind, andwhatever might be underftood by its Wings, is neceffarily inviftble but the fenfible Manifeftation of J'EHovAit, with the divine SPIRIT in a winged Form, has been made to Men, and particularly at the Bap- tifm of CHRIST. The Defcription of the divine Majefty is alto rendered more grand and Mutinous by this Tranflation of the Paf- fage. j HYDE Rel. Yet. Perf. c. v. $ See Dr. LELAND'S "lc/vantage, &c. of Chriftian Rev.

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