GEMARA. See TALMUD. GENERAL CALL. See CALLING. GENERATION, ETERNAL, is a term used as descriptive of the Father's communicating the Divine Nature to the Son. The Father is said by some divines to have produced the Word, or Son, from all eternity, by way of generation; on which occasion the word generation raises a peculiar idea: that procession which is really affected in the way of understanding is called generation, because, in virtue thereof, the Word becomes like to Him from whom he takes the original; or, as St. Paul expresses it, the figure or image of his substance; i. e. of his being and nature. -And hence it is, they say, that the second person is called the Son; and that in such a way and manner as never any other was, is, or can be, because of his own divine nature, he being the true, proper, and natural Son of God, begotten by him before all worlds. Thus, he is called his own Son, Rom. viii. 3. || his only begotten Son, John iii. 16. Many have attempted to explain the manner of this generation by different similitudes; but as they throw little or no light upon the subject, we shall not trouble the reader with them. Some, however, suppose that the term Son of God refers to Christ as mediator; and that his Sonship does not lie in his divine or human nature, separately considered, but in the union of both in one person. See Luke i. 35. Matt. iv. 3. John i. 49. Matt. xvi. 16. Acts ix. 20, 22. Rom. i. 4. It is observed, that it is impossible that a nature properly divine should be begotten, since begetting, whatever idea is annexed to it, must signify some kind of production, derivation, and inferiority; consequently, that whatever is produced must have a beginning, and whatever had a beginning was not from eternity, as Christ is said to be, Is. ix. 6. Col. i. 16, 17. That the Sonship of Christ respects him as mediator will be evident, if we compare John x. 30. with John xiv. 28. In the former it is said, "I and my Father are one;" in the latter, "My Father is greater than I." These declarations, however opposite they seem, equally respect him as he is the Son; but if his Sonship primarily and properly signify the generation of his divine nature, it will be difficult, if not impossible, according to that scheme, to make them harmonize. Considered as a distinct person in the Godhead, without respect to his office as mediator, it is impossible, that, in the same view, he should be both equal and inferior to his

GEN

himself, that "the Son can do nothing of Father. Again: he expressly tells us himself; that the Father showeth him all things that he doth; and that he giveth him to have life in himself," John v. 19, 20, 26. which expressions, if applied to him as God, not as mediator, will reduce us to the disagreeable necessity of subscribing either to the creed of Arius, and maintain him to be God of an inferior nature, and thus a plurality of Gods, or to embrace the doctrine of Socinus, who allows him only to be a God by office. But if this title belong to him as mediator, every difficulty is removed. And, lastly, it is observed, that though Jesus be God, and the attributes of eternal existence ascribed to him, yet the two attributes, eternal and son, are not once expressed in the same text as referring to eternal generation. See article SON OF GOD; Owen on the Person of Christ; Pearson on the Creed; Ridgley's Body of Divinity, p. 73, 76. 3d edition; Gill's Ditto; p. 205, vol. i. 8vo. edition; Lambert's Sermons, ser. 13. text John xi. 35.; Hodson's Essay on the Eternal Filiation of the Son of God; Watts's Works, vol. v. p. 77.

prompts us to bestow favours which are GENEROSITY,the disposition which not the purchase of any particular merit. It is different from humanity. Humanity is an exquisite feeling we possess in relation to others, so as to grieve for their sufferings, resent their injuries, or to rejoice at their prosperity; and as it arises from sympathy, it requires no great self-denial, or self-command; but generosity is that by which we are led to prefer some other person to ourselves, and to sacrifice any interest of our own to the interest of another.

mon, who the ancients supposed was
GENIUS, a good or evil spirit or dæ-
set over each person to direct his birth,
accompany him in his life, and to be his
guard.

a man naturally possesses to perform
Genius signifies that aptitude which
well and easily that which others can
do but indifferently, and with a great
deal of pain.

Pagan, or worshipper of false gods.
GENTILE, in matters of religion, a
The origin of this word is deduced from
were not of their name "gojim, i. e.
the Jews, who called all those who
gentes, which in the Greek translation
of the Old Testament is rendered ra
syn, in which sense it frequently occurs
in the New Testament; as in Matt. vi.
32.
Gentiles seek." Whence the Latin
"All these things the nations or

church also used gentes in the same || sense as our Gentiles, especially in the New Testament. But the word gentes soon got another signification, and no longer meant all such as were not Jews, but those only who were neither Jews nor Christians, but followed the superstitions of the Greeks and Romans, &c. In this sense it continued among the Christian writers, till their manner of speech, together with their religion, was publicly, and by authority, received in the empire, when gentiles, from gentes, came into use; and then both words had two significations; viz. in treatises or laws concerning religion, they signified Pagans, neither Jews nor Christians; and in civil affairs they are used for all such as were not Romans. See HEATHEN. PAGANISM.

ries; meekness restrains our angry passions; candour our severe judgments; but gentleness corrects whatever is offensive in our manner, and, by a constant train of humane attentions, studies to alleviate the burden of common misery."

GENUFLECTION, the act of bowing or bending the knee, or rather of kneeling down. The Jesuit Rosweyd, in his Onomasticon, shows that genuflection, or kneeling, has been a very ancient custom in the church, and even under the Old Testament dispensation; and that this practice was observed throughout all the year, excepting on Sundays, and during the time from Easter to Whitsuntide, when kneeling was forbidden by the council of Nice. Others have shown, that the custom of not GENTLENESS, softness or mildness kneeling on Sundays had obtained from of disposition and behaviour. Little as the time of the apostles, as appears from this disposition is thought of by many, St. Irenæus and Tertullian; and the we find it considered in Scripture as a Ethiopic church, scrupulously attached characteristic of the true Christian. to the ancient ceremonies, still retains "The wisdom that is from above," that of not kneeling at divine service. saith St. James, "is gentle," ch. iii. 17. The Russians esteem it an indecent pos"This gentleness, indeed, is to be dis- ture to worship God on the knees. The tinguished from passive tameness of Jews usually prayed standing. Baronius spirit, and from unlimited compliance is of opinion that genuflection was not with the manners of others. That pas-established in the year of Christ 58, sive tameness, which submits without a struggle to every encroachment of the violent and assuming, forms no part of Christian duty; but, on the contrary, is destructive of general happiness and order. That unlimited complaisance, which on every occasion falls in with the opinions and manners of others, is so far from being a virtue, that it is itself a vice, and the parent of many vices. It overthrows all steadiness of principle, and produces that sinful conformity with the world which taints GHOST, HOLY. See HOLY GHOST. the whole character. In the present GIFT OF TONGUES, an ability corrupted state of human manners, al- given to the apostles of readily and inways to assent and to comply, is the telligibly speaking a variety of languages very worst maxim we can adopt. True which they had never learnt. This was gentleness, therefore, is to be carefully a most glorious and important attestadistinguished from the mean spirit oftion of the Gospel, as well as a suitable, cowards and the fawning assent of syco- and indeed, in their circumstances, a phants. It renounces no just right from necessary furniture for the mission for fear; it gives up no important truth which the apostles and their assistants from flattery: it is, indeed, not only con- were designed. Nor is there any reasistent with a firm mind, but it neces- son, with Dr. Middleton, to understand sarily requires a manly spirit and a fix-it as merely an occasional gift; so that ed principle, in order to give it any real value. It stands opposed to harsh ness and severity, to pride and arrogance, to violence and oppression: it is properly that part of charity which makes us unwilling to give pain to any of our brethren. Compassion prompts us to relieve their wants; forbearance prevents us from retaliating their inju

from that passage in Acts xx. 36, where St. Paul is expressly mentioned to kneel down at prayer; but Saurin shows that nothing can be thence concluded. The same author remarks, also, that the primitive Christians carried the practice of genuflection so far, that some of them had worn cavities in the floor where they prayed: and St. Jerome relates of St. James, that he had contracted a hardness on his knees equal to that of camels.

a person might speak a language most fluently one hour, and be entirely ignorant of it in the next; which neither agrees with what is said of the abuse of it, nor would have been sufficient to answer the end proposed. See Acts ii. See Gill and Henry in Loc.; Jortin's Remarks, vol. i. p. 15–21 ; Essay on the Gift of Tongues; Middleton's "Miseel.

Works, vol. ii. p. 379; Doddridge's || rise. The name was adopted by this Lect. lec. 141. sect, on the presumption that they were the only persons who had the true knowledge of Christianity. Accordingly they looked on all other Christians as simple, ignorant, and barbarous persons, who explained and interpreted the sacred writings in a low, literal, and unedifying signification. At first, the Gnostics were the only philosophers and wits of those times, who formed for themselves a peculiar system of theology, agreeable to the philosophy of Pythagoras and Plato; to which they accommodated all their interpretations of Scripture. But Gnostics afterwards became a generical name, comprehending divers sects and parties of heretics, who rose in the first centuries; and who, though they differed among themselves as to circumstances, yet all agreed in some common principles. They corrupted the doctrine of the Gospel by a profane mixture of the tenets of the ori

GILBERTINES; a religious order; thus called from St. Gilbert, of Sempringham, in the county of Lincoln, who founded the same about the year 1148; the monks of which observed the rule of St. Augustine, and were accounted canons, and the nuns that of St. Benedict. The founder of this order erected a double monastery, or rather two different ones, contiguous to each other;|| the one for men, the other for women, but parted by a very high wall. St. Gilbert himself founded thirteen monasteries of this order; viz. four for men alone, and nine for men and women together, which had in them 700 brethren, and 1500 sisters. At the dissolution, there were about twenty-five houses of this order in England and Wales.

GLASSITES. See SANDEMANIANS. GLORY, praise, or honour, attributed to God, in adoration or worship. The state of felicity prepared for the righ-ental philosophy, concerning the origin teous. See HEAVEN.

The glory of God is the manifestation of the divine perfections in creation, providence, and grace. We may be said to give glory to God when we confess our sins, when we love him supremely, when we commit ourselves to him, are zealous in his service, improve our talents, walk humbly, thankfully, and cheerfully before him, and recommend, proclaim, or set forth his excellencies, to others. Josh. vii. 19. Gal. ii. 20. John xv. 8. Ps. 1. 23. Mat. v. 16.

GNOSIMACHI, a name which distinguished those in the seventh century who were professed enemies to the Gnosis; i. e. the studied knowledge or science of Christianity, which they rested wholly on good works; calling it a useless labour to seek for knowledge in the Scripture. In short, they contended for the practice of morality in all simplicity, and blamed those who aimed at improving and perfecting it by a deeper knowledge and insight into the doctrines and mysteries of religion. The Gnosimachi were the very reverse of the Gnostics.

of evil and the creation of the world, with its divine truths. Such were the Valentinians, Simonians, Carpocratians, Nicholaitans, &c.

Gnostics sometimes also occurs in a good sense, in the ancient ecclesiastical writers, particularly Clemens Alexandrinus, who, in the person of his Gnostic, describes the characters and qualities of a perfect Christian. This point he labours in the seventh book of his || Stromata, where he shows that none but the Gnostic, or learned person, has any true religion. He affirms, that, were it possible for the knowledge of God to be separated from eternal salvation, the Gnostic would make no scruple to choose the knowledge; and that if God would promise him impunity in doing of any thing he has once spoken against, or offer him heaven on those terms, he would never alter a whit of his measures. In this sense the father uses Gnostics, in opposition to the heretics of the same name; affirming, that the true Gnostic is grown old in the study of the holy Scripture, and that he preserves the orthodox doctrine of the apostles, and of the church; whereas the false Gnostic abandons all the apostolical traditions, as imagining himself

GNOSTICS, (from Fores, knowing,) ancient heretics, famous from the first rise of Christianity, principally in the east. It appears from several pas-wiser than the apostles. sages of Scripture, particularly 1 John ii. 18; 1 Tim. vi. 20; Col. ii. 8; that many persons were infected with the Gnostic heresy in the first century; though the sect did not render itself conspicuous, either for numbers or reputation, before the time of Adrian, when some writers erroneously date its

Gnostics was sometimes also more particularly used for the successors of the Nicholaitans and Carpocratians, in the second century, upon their laying aside the names of the first authors. Such as would be thoroughly acquainted with all their doctrines, reveries, and visions may consult St. Írenæus, Tertul

deal of their æons, or emanations, under the terms the word, the life, the light, &c. They divided all nature into three

lian, Clemens Alexandrinus, Origen, and St. Epiphanius; particularly the first of these writers, who relates their sentiments at large, and confutes them.kinds of beings, viz. hylic, or material;

psychic, or animal; and pneumatic, or spiritual. On the like principle they also distinguished three sorts of men; material, animal, and spiritual. The first, who were material, and incapable of knowledge, inevitably perished, both soul and body; the third, such as the Gnostics themselves pretended to be, were all certainly saved; the psychic, or animal, who were the middle between the other two, were capable either of being saved or damned, according to their good or evil actions. With regard to their moral doctrines and conduct, they were much divided. The greatest part of this sect adopted very austere rules of life, recommended rigorous abstinence, and prescribed severe bodily mortifications, with a view of purifying and exalting the mind. However, some maintained that there was no moral difference in human actions; and thus confounding right with wrong, they gave a loose rein to all the passions, and asserted the innocence of following blindly all their motions, and of living by their tumultuous dictates. They supported their opinions and practice by various authorities: some referred to fictitious and apocryphal writings of Adam, Abraham, Zoroaster, Christ, and his apostles; others boasted that they had deduced their sentiments from secret doctrines of Christ, concealed from the vulgar; others affirmed that they arrived at superior degrees of wisdom by an innate vigour of mind; and others asserted that they were instructed in these mysterious parts of theological science by Theudas, a disciple of St. Paul, and by

Indeed he dwells more on the Valentinians than any other sect of Gnostics; but he shows the general principles whereon all their mistaken opinions were founded, and the method they followed in explaining Scripture. He accuses them of introducing into religion certain vain and ridiculous genealogies, i. e. a kind of divine processions or emanations, which had no other foundation but in their own wild imagination. The Gnostics confessed, that these aons, or emanations, were no where expressly delivered in the sacred writings; but insisted that Jesus Christ had intimated them in parables to such as could understand them. They built their theology not only on the Gospels and the epistles of St. Paul, but also on the law of Moses and the prophets. These last were peculiarly serviceable to them, on account of the allegories and allusions with which they abound, which are capable of different interpretations; though their doctrine concerning the creation of the world by one or more inferior beings of an evil or imperfect nature, led them to deny the divine authority of the books of the Old Testament, which contradicted this idle fiction, and filled them with an abhorrence of Moses and the religion he taught; alleging, that he was actuated by the malignant author of this world, who consulted his own glory and authority, and not the real advantage of men. Their persuasion that evil resided in matter, as its centre and source, made them treat the body with contempt, discourage marriage, and reject the doctrine of the resurrection of the body, and its re-union with the im-Matthias, one of the friends of our Lord. mortal spirit. Their notion, that malevolent genii presided in nature, and occasioned diseases and calamities, wars and desolations, induced them to apply themselves to the study of magic, in order to weaken the powers, or suspend the influence of these malignant agents. The Gnostics considered Jesus Christ as the Son of God, and inferior to the Father, who came into the world for the rescue and happiness of miserable mortals, oppressed by matter and evil beings; but they rejected our Lord's humanity, on the principle that every thing corporeal is essentially and intrinsically evil; and therefore the greatest part of them denied the reality of his sufferings. They set a great value on the beginning of the Gospel of St. John, where they fancied they saw a great

The tenets of the ancient Gnostics were revived in Spain, in the fourth century, by a sect called the Priscillianists. At length the name Gnostic, which originally was glorious, became infamous, by the idle opinions and dissolute lives of the persons who bore it.

GOD, the self-existent, infinitely perfect, and infinitely good Being, who created and preserves all things that have existence. As the Divine Being possesses a nature far beyond the comprehension of any of his creatures, of course that nature is inexplicable. "All our knowledge of invisible objects is obtained by analogy; that is, by the resemblance which they bear to visible objects; but as there is in nature no exact resemblance of the nature of God, an attempt to explain the divine nature

is absurd and impracticable. All similitudes, therefore, which are used in attempting to explain it must be rejected." Yet, though we cannot fully understand his nature, there is something of him we may know. He hath been pleased to discover his perfections, in a measure, by the works of creation and the Scriptures of truth; these, therefore, we ought to study, in order that we may obtain the most becoming thoughts of him. For an account of the various attributes or perfections of God, the reader is referred to those articles induced to these four ideas; knowledge

virtue; and by these means lay themselves under an indispensable obligation to instruct them, and watch over their conduct.