284 TILE ARIAN INVITED TO ORTIIODO% FAITH. Almighty; the worker of all things ; the brightness of the ever- lasting light; the image of the goodness.of God." To which it is supposed the apostlemight allude ; Heb. i. 3.- " when he calls Christ, the brightness of his Father's glory, and the express image of his person. And it is probable that the author of Fe- clesiasticus gives an intimation of the Sonof God, chapter li. 14. " And I called upon the Lord, the Father of my Lord." From all these citations we may derive this degree of light, that the writers Of the New Testament, do not imitate the lan- guage of Plato, or other heathen philosophers, when they des- cribe the logos, the word of God, or his wisdom, and that some- times in a personal manner ; but rather that they follow the lan- guage of scripture, and of the Jewish church : And that they had many hints from the Old Testament itself, as well as from their traditional expositions of it, as Dr. Allix informs us, that their great expected Messiah was to be the Son of God, and the Word of God, as being the fittest characters of a personwho was to represent the wisdom and grace of God amongst them ; and to be an illustrious medium of divine manifestations and operations. It is allowed, indeed, that Plato may call the divine impres- sions on the works of nature, aoygt, or words ; and he spake of the aoyóe,,,the word, or reason of the Creator; but is much more probable from ancient history, that Plato, and other Gre- cians, borrowed that term from converse with the Jews, or their neighbours the. Phcrnicians, and the Chaldean*, than that the fi Jews should borrow it oln him or them; or that St. John, who was a poor Jewish fisherman, should be acquainted with the Grecian learning of the Gentiles, and imitate their phrases, when the same phrases were more common and ancient in his own na- tion. I proceed now to consider, what we find concerning the word, and the Son- of God, in the Jewish commentaries on scripture which are called the targums. Here I shall make a free acknowledgment, that what I cite upon this occasion, is bor- rowed chiefly from Dr. Allix, Dr. Owen, Dr. Lightfoot, Mr. Ainsworth, and Mr. Fleming. My acquaintance with the Chal- dean or Rabbinical language, was never sufficient to read the rabbies, or their comments on scripture: But I may reasonably presume, that these learned authors have made faithful citations from these Jewish writers, and given a just account of their sentiments. Grotius on John i. 1. affirms that the Greeks cite the creation of the sun and moon, by the word, out of the ancient books of the Cbaldees: And that the writer of the orpheic verses, thence borrowed his Oee&',,y(, and bis avIn wavtaç, thedivine word, and the voice of the Father, whereby he made the world. That learned author, Mr. Theophilus Gale, in bis " Court of theGentiles," part II. book iii. chapter 3, and 9, hasshown at large how Plato borrowed his notions originally from the Jews, by thePythagorean, the Egyptians, and Pbcesiciaas: Aad many other very learned men havebeen of the same mind,
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