ALMARICIANS stop to their progress, stirred up the great men of the kingdom to make war upon them. After suffering from their persecutors, they dwindled by little and little, till the time of the Reformation; when such of them as were left, fell in with the Vaudois, and conformed to the doctrine of Zuinglius, and the disciples of Geneva. The Albigenses have been frequently confounded with the Waldenses; from whom it is said they differ.in many respects, both as being prior to them in point of time, as having their origin in a different country, and as being charged with divers heresies, particularly Manicheism, from which the Waldenses were exempt. See WALDENSES. ALEXANDRIAN MANUSCRIPT, a famous copy of the Scriptures, in four volumes quarto. It contains the whole Bible in Greek, including the Old and New Testament, with the Apocrypha and some smaller pieces, but not quite complete. It is preserved in the British Museum: it was sent as a present to king Charles I, from Cyrillus Lucaris, patriarch of Constantinople, by Sir Thomas Rowe, ambassador from England to the Grand Seignior, about the year 1628. Cyrillus brought it with him from Alexandria, where probably it was written. In a schedule annexed to it, he gives this account:-That it was written, as tradition informed them, by Thecla, a noble Egyptian lady, about 1300 years ago, not long after the council of Nice. But this high antiquity, and the authority of the tradition to which the patriarch refers, have been disputed; nor are the most accurate biblical writers agreed about its age. Grabe thinks that it might have been written before the end of the fourth century; others are of opinion that it was not written till near the end of the fifth century, or somewhat later. See Dr. Woide's edition of it. ALEXANDRIAN VERSION, another name for the Septuagint, a Greek translation of the Old Testament, so called from its having been made at the command of Ptolemy Philadelphus, king of Egypt, for the use of the great library at Alexandria. See SEPTUAGINT.-B. ALKORAN. See KORAN. AMAURITES century the age of the Holy Spirit commenced, in which the sacraments, and all external wor ships were to be abolished; and that every one was to be saved by the internal operation of the Holy Spirit alone, without any external act of religion. ALMONER, a person employed by another, in the distribution of charity. In its primitive sense it denoted an officer in religious houses, to whom belonged the management and distribution of the alms of the house. ALMS, what is given gratuitously for the relief of the poor, and in repairing the churches. That alms-giving is a duty is every way evident from the variety of passages which enjoin it in the sacred Scriptures. It is observable, however, what a number of excuses are made by those who are not found in the exercise of the duty; 1. That they have nothing to spare; 2. That charity begins at home; 3. That charity does not consist in giving money, but in benevolence, love to all mankind, &c.; 4. That giving to the poor is not mentioned in St. Paul's description of charity, 1 Cor. xiii; 5. That they pay the poorrates; 6. That they employ many poor persons, 7. That the poor do not suffer so much as we imagine; 8. That these people, give them what you will, will never be thankful; 9. That we are liable to be imposed upon; 10. That they should apply to their parishes; 11. That giving money encourages idleness; 12. That we have too many objects of charity at home. O the love of money, how fruitful is it in apologies for a con tracted mercenary spirit! In giving of alms, how ever, the following rules should be observed: first, They should be given with justice; only our own, to which we have a just right, should be given. 2. With cheerfulness, Deut. xv. 10. 2. Cor. ix. 7. 3. With simplicity and sincerity, Rom. xii. Matt. vi. 3. 4. With compassion and affection, Is. Iviii. 10. 1 John iii. 17. 5. Season ably, Gal. vi. 10. Prov. iv. 27. 6. Bountifully Deut. xviii. 11. 1 Tim. vi. 18. 7. Prudently, according to every one's need, 1 Tim. v. 8. Acts iv. 35. See Dr. Barrow's admirable Sermon on Bounty to the Poor, which took him up three hours and a half in preaching; Saurin's Ser vol. iv. Eng. Trans. ser. 9; Paley's Mor. Phi.. ALOGIANS, a sect of ancient heretics who denied that Jesus Christ was the Logos, and consequently rejected the Gospel of St. John. The word is compounded of the privative and q. d. without logos, or word. They made their ap pearance toward the close of the second century. ALL-SUFFICIENCY OF GOD, is that power or attribute of his nature whereby he is able to communicate as much blessedness to his creatures as he is pleased to make them capable of re-ch. 5. vol. i. ceiving. As his self-sufficiency is that whereby he has enough in himself to denominate him completely blessed, as a God of infinite perfection; so his all-sufficiency is that by which he hath enough in himself to satisfy the most enlarged desires of his creatures, and to make them completely blessed. We practically deny this perfection, when we are discontented with our present condition, and desire more than God has allotted for us, Gen. iii. 5. Prov. xix. 3. Ridgley's Body of Dir. ques. 17; Saurin's Ser. ser. 5. vol. i.: Barrow's Works, vol. ii. ser. 11. ALMARICIANS, a denomination that arose in the thirteenth century. They derived their origin from Almaric, professor of logic and the ology at Paris. His adversaries charged him with having taught that every Christian was obliged to believe himself a member of Jesus Christ, and that without this belief none could be saved. His followers asserted that the power of the Father had continued only during the Mosaic dispensation, that of the Son twelve hundred years after his entrance upon earth; and that in the thirteenth ALTAR, a kind of table or raised structure whereon the ancient sacrifices were offered. 2. The table, in Christian churches, where the Lord's Supper is administered. Altars are, doubtless, of great antiquity; some suppose they were as early as Adam; but there is no mention made of them till after the flood, when Noah built one, and offered burnt-offerings on it. The Jews had two altars in and about their temple; 1. the altar of burnt offerings; 2. the altar of incense: some also call the table for shew-bread an altar, but improperly, Exod. xx. 24, 25. 1 Kings xviii. 30. Exod. xxv. xxvii. and xxx. Heb. ix. AMAURITES, the followers of Amauri, a clergyman of Bonne, in the thirteenth century. He acknowledged the divine Three, to whom he attributed the empire of the world. But, ac, AMYRALDISM ANABAPTISTS Amyrault and others his followers, among the reformed in France, towards the middle of the seventeenth century. This doctrine principally consisted of the following particulars, viz. that God desires the happiness of all men, and none are excluded by a divine decree; that none can obtain salvation without faith in Christ; that cording to him, religion had three epochas, which bore a similitude to the reign of the three persons in the Trinity. The reign of God had existed as long as the law of Moses. The reign of the Son would not always last. A time would come when the sacraments should cease, and then the religion of the Holy Ghost would begin, when men would render a spiritual worship to the Su-God refuses to none the power of believing, preme Being. This reign Amauri thought would succeed to the Christian religion, as the Christian had succeeded to that of Moses. AMAZEMENT, a term sometimes employed to express our wonder; but it is rather to be considered as a medium between wonder and astonishment. It is manifestly borrowed from the extensive and complicated intricacies of a labyrinth, in which there are endless mazes, without the discovery of a clue. Hence an idea is conveved of more than simple wonder; the mind is lost in wonder. See WONDER. AMBITION, a desire of excelling, or at least of being thought to excel, our neighbours in any thing. It is generally used in a bad sense for an immoderate or illegal pursuit of power or honour. See PRAISE. though he does not grant to all his assistance that they may improve this power to saving purposes; and that they may perish through their own fault. Those who embraced this doctrine were called Universalists, though it is evident they rendered grace universal in words, but par tial in reality. See CAMERONITES. ANABAPTISTS, those who maintain that baptism ought always to be performed by immer sion. The word is compounded of ava, "anew," and TITS, "a Baptist;" signifying that those who have been baptized in their infancy ought to be baptized anew. It is a word which has been indiscriminately applied to Christians of very dif ferent principles and practices. The English and Dutch Baptists do not consider the word as at all applicable to their sect; because those persons whom they baptize they consider as never having been baptized before, although they have undergone what they term the ceremony of sprinkling in their infancy. certain ideas which they entertained concerning a perfect church establishment, pure in its members, and free from the institutions of human policy. The most prudent part of them considered it pos sible, by human industry and vigilance, to purify the church; and seeing the attempts of Luther to be successful, they hoped that the period was arrived in which the church was to be restored to this purity. Others, not satisfied with Luther's plan of reformation, undertook a more perfect plan, or, more properly, a visionary enterprise, to found a new church, entirely spiritual and divine. AMEDIANS, a congregation of religious in Italy; so called from their professing themselves amantes Deum, "lovers of God;" or rather amati Deo, "beloved of God." They wore a grey habit and wooden shoes, had no breeches, and The Anabaptists of Germany, besides their girt themselves with a cord. They had twenty-notions concerning baptism, depended much upon aight convents, and were united by pope Pius V. partly with the Cistercian order, and partly with that of the Soccolanti, or wooden shoe wearers. AMEN, a Hebrew word, which, when prefixed to an assertion, signifies assuredly, certainly, or emphatically so it is; but when it condudes a prayer, so be it, or so let it be, is its manifest import. In the former case it is assertive, assures of a truth or a fact; and is an asseveration and is properly translated, verily, John i. 3. In the latter case it is petitionary, and, as it were, epitomises all the requests with which it stands connected. Numb. v. 25. Rev. xxii. 20. This emphatical term was not used among the Hebrews by detached individuals only, but, on certain occasions, by an assembly at large. Deut. xxii. 14. 20. It was adopted, also, in the public worship of the primitive churches, as appears by that passage, 1 Cor. xiv. 16, and was continued among the Christians in following times; yea, such was the extreme into which many ran, that Jerome informs us, that, in his time, at the condusion of every public prayer, the united amen of the people sounded like the fall of water, or the noise of thunder. Nor is the practice of some professors in our own time to be commended, who, with a low, though audible voice, add their anen to almost every sentence as it proceeds from the lips of him who is praying. As this has a tendency to interrupt the devotion of those that are near them, and may disconcert the thoughts of him who leads the worship, it would be better omitted, and a mental amen is sufficient. The term, as used at the end of our prayers, suggests that we should pray with understanding, Lith, fervour and expectation. See Mr. Booth's Amen to Social Prayer. AMMONIANS. See NEW PLATONICS. AMYRALDISM, a name given by some writers to the doctrine of universal grace, as explained and asserted by Amyraldus, or Moses This sect was soon joined by great numbers, whose characters and capacities were very dif ferent. Their progress was rapid: for, in a very short space of time, their discourses, visions, and predictions, excited great commotions in a great part of Europe. The most pernicious faction of all those which composed this motley multitude, was that which pretended that the founders of this new and perfect church were under a divine im pulse, and were armed against all opposition by the power of working miracles. It was this faotion, that, in the year 1521, began their fanatical work under the guidance of Munzer, Stubner, Storick, &c. These men taught, that, among Christians, who had the precepts of the Gospel to direct, and the Spirit of God to guide them, the office of magistracy was not only unnecessary, but an unlawful encroachment on their spiritual li berty; that the distinctions occasioned by birth, rank, or wealth should be abolished; that all Christians, throwing their possessions into one stock, should live together in that state of equality which becomes members of the same family; that, as neither the laws of nature, nor the precepts of the New Testament, had prohibited polygamy, they should use the same liberty as the patriarchs did in this respect. They employed, at first, the various arts of persuasion, in order to propagate their doctrines ANAGOGICAL and related a number of visions and revelations, with which they pretended to have been favoured from above: but, when they found that this would not avail, and that the ministry of Luther and other reformers was detrimental to their cause, they then madly attempted to propagate their sentiments by force of arms. Munzer and his associates, in the year 1525, put themselves at the head of a numerous army, and declared war against all laws, governments, and magistrates of every kind, under the chimerical pretext, that Christ himself was now to take the reins of all government into his hands: but this seditious crowd was routed and dispersed by the elector of Saxony and other princes, and Munzer, their leader, put to death. Many of his followers, however, survived, and propagated their opinions through Germany, Switzerland, and Holland. In 1533, a party of them settled at Munster, under two leaders of the names of Matthias and Bockholdt. Having made themselves masters of the city, they deposed the magistrates, confiscated the estates of such as had escaped, and deposited the wealth in a public treasury for common use. They made preparations for the defence of the city; invited the Anabaptists in the Low Countries to assemble at Munster, which they called Mount Sion, that from thence they might reduce all the nations of the earth under their dominion. Matthias was soon cut off by the bishop of Munster's army, and was succeeded by Bockholdt, who was proclaimed by a special designation of heaven, as the pretended king of Sion, and invested with legislative powers like those of Moses. The city of Munster, however, was taken, after a long siege, and Bockholdt punished with death. ANATHEMA the mind, not only to the knowledge of divine things, but of divine things in the next life. The word is seldom used, but with regard to the different senses of the Scripture. The anagogical sense is when the sacred text is explained with regard to eternal life, the point which Christians should have in view; for example, the rest of the sabbath, in the anagogical sense, signifies the repose of everlasting happiness. ANALOGY OF FAITH, is the proportion that the doctrines of the Gospel bear to each other, or the close connection between the truths of revealed religion, Rom. xii. 6. This is considered as a grand rule for understanding the true sense of Scripture. It is evident that the Almighty doth not act without a design in the system of Christianity, any more than he does in the works of nature. Now this design must be uniform; for as in the system of the universe every part is proportioned to the whole, and made subservient to it, so in the system of the Gospel all the various truths, doctrines, declarations, precepts, and promises, must correspond with and tend to the end designed. For instance, supposing the glory of God in the salvation of man by free grace be the grand design; then, whatever doctrine, assertion, or hypothesis, agree not with this, is to he considered as false.-Great care, however, must be taken, in making use of this method, that the inquirer previously understand the whole scheme, and that he harbour not a predilection only for a part; without attention to this, we shall be liable to error. If we come to the Scriptures with any preconceived opinions, and are more desirous to put that sense upon the text which quadrates with our sentiments, rather than the truth, it be comes then the analogy of our faith, rather than It must be acknowledged that the true rise of that of the whole system. This was the source the insurrections of this period ought not to be of the error of the Jews, in our Saviour's time. attributed to religious opinions. The first insur- They searched the Scriptures; but, such were gents groaned under severe oppressions, and took their favourite opinions, that they could not, or up arms in defence of their civil liberties; and of would not, discover that the sacred volume testithese commotions the Anabaptists seem rather to fied of Christ. And the reason was evident; for have availed themselves, than to have been the their great rule of interpretation was, what they prime movers. That a great part were Anabap-might call the analogy of faith, i. e. the system tists seems indisputable; at the same time, it ap- of the Pharisean scribes, the doctrine then in vogue, pears from history, that a great part also were and in the profound veneration of which they Roman Catholics, and a still greater part of those had been educated. Perhaps there is hardly any who had scarcely any religious principles at all. sect but what has inore or less been guilty in this Indeed, when we read of the vast numbers that respect. It may, however, be of use to the serious were concerned in these insurrections, of whom it and candid inquirer; for, as some texts may seem is reported that 100,000 fell by the sword, it ap- to contradict each other, and difficulties present pears reasonable to conclude that they were not themselves, by keeping the analogy of faith in all Anabaptists. view, he will the more easily resolve those difficulIt is but justice to observe also, that the Bap-ties, and collect the true sense of the sacred oratists in England and Holland are to be considered in a different light from those above mentioned: they profess an equal aversion to all principles of rebellion on the one hand, and to enthusiasm on the other. See Robertson's Hist. of Charles V.; Enc. Brit. vol. i. p. 644; and articles BAPTISTS and MENNONITES. ANACHORETS, or ANCHORITES, a sort of monks in the primitive church, who retired from the society of mankind into some desert, with a view to avoid the temptations of the world, and to be more at leisure for prayer, meditation, &c. Such were Paul, Anthony, and Hilarion, the first founders of monastic life in Egypt and Palestine. cles. What "the aphorisms of Hippocrates are to a physician, the axioms in geometry to a mathematician, the adjudged cases in law to a counsellor, or the maxims of war to a general, such is the analogy of faith to a Christian." Of the analogy of religion to the constitution and course of nature, we must refer our readers to Bishop Butler's excellent treatise on that subject. ANATHEMA, imports whatever is set apart, separated, or divided; but is most usually meant to express the cutting off of a person from the communion of the faithful. It was practised in the primitive church against notorious offenders. Several councils also have pronounced anathemas against such as they thought corrupted the ANAGOGICAL, signifies mysterious, trans-purity of the faith. Anathema Maranatha, menporting: and is used to express whatever elevatestioned by Paul, (1 Cor. xiv. 22,) imports that he ANGELS who loves not the Lord Jesus will be accursed at his coming. Anathema signifies a thing devoted to destruction, and Maranatha is a Syriac word, signifying the Lord comes. It is probable in this passage there is an allusion to the form of the Jews, whe, when unable to inflict so great a punishment as the crime deserved, devoted the culprit to the immediate vindictive retribution of divine vengeance, both in this life and in a future state. ANDRONA, a term used for that part in churches which was destined for the men. Anciently, it was the custom for the men and women to have separate apartments in places of worship, where they performed their devotions asunder, which method is still religiously observed in the Greek church. fies the same. ANGELS tion, and we dare not indulge a spirit of conjecture. It is our happiness to know that they are all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister to them who are heirs of salvation. "What As to the nature of these beings, we are told that they are spirits; but whether pure spirits, divested of all matter, or united to some thin bodies, or corporeal vehicles, has been a controversy of long standing; the more general opinion is, that they are substances entirely spiritual, though they can at any time assume bodies, and appear in human shape, Gen. xviii. xix. and xxxii. Matt. xxviii. Luke i. &c. The Scriptures represent them as endued with extraordinary wisdom and power, 2 Sam. xiv. 20. Ps. ciii. 20; holy and regular in their inclinations; zealous in their employ, and completely happy in their minds, Job xxxviii. 7. Heb. i. 7. Matt. ANGEL, a spiritual intelligent substance, the xviii. 10. Their number seems to be great, Ps. first in rank and dignity among created beings. Ixviii. 17. Heb. xii. 22; and perhaps have disThe word angel (1) is Greek, and signifies tinct orders, Col. i. 16, 17. 1 Pet. iii. 22. 1 Thes. a messenger. The Hebrew word signi- iv. 16. Dan. x. 13. They are delighted with the Angels, therefore, in the proper grand scheme of redemption, and the conversion signification of the word, do not import the na-of sinners to God, Luke'ii. 12. 1 Pet. i. 12. Luke ture of any being, but only the office to which xv. 10. They not only worship God, and exethey are appointed, especially by way of message cute his commands at large, but are attendant on or intercourse between God and his creatures, the saints of God while here below, Ps. xci. 11, Hence the word is used differently in various 12. Heb. i. 13. Luke xvi. 22. Some conjecture parts of the Scripture, and significs, 1. Human that every good man has his particular guardian messengers, or agents for others. 2 Sam. ii. 5. angel, Matt. xviii. 10. Acts xii. 15; but this is "David sert messengers (Heb. angels) to Jabesh easier to be supposed than to be proved; nor is Gilead." Prov. xiii. 17. Mark 1. 2. James ii. it a matter of consequence to know. 25.-2. Officers of the churches, whether pro-need we dispute," says Henry, "whether every phets or ordinary ministers, Hag. i. 13. Rev. i. particular saint has a guardian angel, when we 20.-3. Jesus Christ, Mal. iii. I. Is. Ixiii. 9.—are sure he has a guard of angels about him?" 4. Some add the dispensations of God's provi-They will gather the elect in the last day, attend dence, either beneficial or calamitous, Gen. xxiv. the final judgment, Matt. xxv. 31. Rev. xiv. 18. 7. Ps. xxxiv. 7. Acts xii. 23. 1 Sam. xiv. 14; but Matt. xiii. 39; and live for ever in the world of I must confess, that, though I do not at all see the glory, Luke xx. 36. impropriety of considering the providences of Although the angels were originally created God as his angels or messengers for good or for perfect, yet they were mutable: some of them evil, yet the passages generally adduced under sinned, and kept not their first estate; and so, this head do not prove to me that the providences of the most blessed and glorious, became the most of God are meant in distinction from created an-vile and miserable of all God's creatures. They gels-5. Created intelligences, both good and were expelled the regions of light, and with heabad. Heb. i. 14. Jude vi.; the subject of the pre-ven lost their heavenly disposition, and fell into sent article.-As to the time when the angels a settled rancour against God, and malice against were created, much has been said by the learned.men. What their offence was is difficult to deSome wonder that Moses, in his account of the termine, the Scripture being silent about it. Some creation, should pass over this in silence. Others think envy, others unbelief; but most suppose it suppose that he did this because of the proneness was pride. As to the time of their fall, we are of the Gentile world, and even the Jews, to idola- certain it could not be before the sixth day of the try: but a better reason has been assigned by creation, because on that day it is said, "God saw others, viz. that this first history was purposely every thing that he had made, and behold it was and principally written for information concerning very good;" but that it was not long after, is very the visible world; the invisible, of which we probable, as it must have preceded the fall of our know but in part, being reserved for a better life. first parents. The number of the fallen angels Some think that the idea of God's not creating seems to be great, and, like the holy angels, perthem before this world was made, is very con-haps, have various orders among them, Matt. tracted. To suppose, say they, that no creatures xii. 24. Eph. ii. 2. vi. 12. Col. ii. 15. Rev. xii. whatever, neither angels nor other worlds, had 7. Their constant employ is not only doing evil been created previous to the creation of our themselves, but endeavouring by all arts to seduce world, is to suppose that a Being of infinite and pervert mankind, 1 Pet. v. 8. Job. i. 6. It power, wisdom, and goodness, had remained is supposed they will be restrained during the totally inactive from all eternity, and had per-millennium, Rev. xx. 2; but afterwards again, for mitted the infinity of space to continue a perfect a short time, deceive the nations, Rev. xx. 8; and vacuum till within these 6000 years; that such then be finally punished, Matt. xxv. 41. The an idea only tends to discredit revelation, instead authors who have written on this subject have of serving it. On the other hand it is alleged, been very numerous; we shall only refer to a that they must have been created within the six days; because it is said, that within this space God made heaven and earth, and all things that are therein. It is, however, a needless specula few: Reynolds's Inquiry into the State and Economy of the Angelical World; Cudworth's In tellectual System; Doddridge's Leck. p. 10. leot. 210 to 214; Mill's Paradise Lost Bp. New ADOPTION ADOPTION ADIAPHORISTS, a name given in the six-adoption is an act of God's free grace, whereby teenth century to the moderate Lutherans who adhered to the sentiments of Melancthon; and afterwards to those who subscribed the Interim of Charles V. [See INTERIM.] The word is of Greek origin (adapopos,) and signifies indifference or lukewarmness. ADMIRATION is that passion of the mind which is excited by the discovery of any great excellence in an object. It has by some writers been used as synonymous with surprise and wonder; but it is evident they are not the same. Surprise refers to something unexpected; wonder, to something great or strange; but admiration includes the idea of high esteem or respect. Thus, we say we admire a man's excellencies; but we do not say that we are surprised at them. We wonder at an extraordinary object or event, but we do not always admire it. ADMONITION denotes a hint or advice given to another, whereby we reprove him for his fault, or remind him of his duty. Admonition was a part of the discipline much used in the ancient church; it was the first act or step towards the punishment or expulsion of delinquents. In case of private offences, was performed according to evangelical rule, privately; in case of public offence, openly before the church. If either of these sufficed for the recovery of the fallen person, all further proceedings, in a way of censure, ceased; if they did not, recourse was had to excommunication. Tit. iii. 10. 1 Thess. v. 14. Eph. vi. 4. we are received into the number, and have a right to all the privileges of the sons of God. 3. Glorious, is that in which the saints, being raised from the dead, are at the last day solemnly owned to be the children of God, and enter into the full possession of that inheritance provided for them. Rom. viii. 19, 23. Adoption is a word taken from the civil law, and was much in use among the Romans in the Apostles' time; when it was a custom for persons who had no children of their own, and were possessed of an estate, to prevent its being divided or descending to strangers, to make choice of such as were agreeable to them, and beloved by them, whom they took into this political relation of children; obliging them to take their name upon them, and to pay respect to them as though they were their natural pa rents, and engaging to deal with them as though they had been so; and accordingly to give them a right to their estates, as an inheritance. This new relation, founded in a mutual consent, is a bond of affection; and the privilege arising from thence is, that he, who is in this sense a father, takes care of and provides for the person whom he adopts, as though he were his son by nature; and therefore civilians call it an act of legitimation, imitating nature, or supplying the place of it. It is easy, then, to conceive the propriety of the term as used by the apostle, in reference to this act, though it must be confessed there is some difference between civil and spiritual adoption. Civil adoption was allowed of and provided for ADONAI, Hebrew, a title of the Su- the relief and comfort of those who had no chilpreme Being in the Scriptures, rendered in En-dren; but in spiritual adoption this reason does glish by the word Lord. The original comes not appear. The Almighty was under no oblifrom Aden, a base, pillar, or supporter; and it is gation to do this; for he had innumerable spirits not a little remarkable that the etymology of our whom he had created, besides his own Son, who vernacular Lord is precisely similar, it being a had all the perfections of the divine nature, who contraction of the old Saxon laford, or hlafford, was the object of his delight, and who is styled from laef, to support or sustain, the same root the heir of all things, Heb. i. 3. When men from which also comes the English word loaf. adopt, it is on account of some excellency in the The Hebrew JEHOVAH is likewise translated persons who are adopted: thus Pharaoh's daugh Lord in our Bibles, and this is known by its ter adopted Moses because he was exceeding fair, being printed in capital letters, whereas in the Acts vii. 20, 21; and Mordecai adopted Esther other case the common small character is employ-because she was his uncle's daughter, and exed. The Jews, from excessive reverence, never ceeding fair, Est. ii. 7; but man has nothing in pronounce the name JEHOVAH when they meet him that merits this divine act, Ezek. xvi. 5. In with it in reading the Hebrew Scriptures, but civil adoption, though the name of a son be given, invariably substitute Adonai, which has the same the nature of a son may not: this relation may vowel points. But there is no law forbidding the not necessarily be attended with any change of enunciation of the name JEHOVAH; nor does it disposition or temper. But in the spiritual adopappear to have been scrupled by the ancient tion we are made partakers of the divine nature, Jews.-B. and a temper or disposition given us becoming the relationship we bear. Jer. iii. 19. 66 As ADONISTS, a party among divines and critics, who maintain that the Hebrew points or- Much has been said as to the time of adoption. dinarily annexed to the consonants of the word Some place it before regeneration, because it is Jehovah are not the natural points belonging to supposed we must be in the family before we can that word, nor express the true pronounciation be partakers of the blessings of it. But it is diffiof it; but are the vowel points belonging to the cult to conceive of one before the other; for alwords Adonai and Elohim, applied to the con- though adoption may seem to precede regenerasonants of the ineffable name Jehovah, to warn tion in order of nature, yet not of time; they may the readers, that instead of the word Jehovah, be distinguished, but cannot be separated. which the Jews were forbid to pronounce, and many as received him, to them gave he power to the true pronunciation of which had been long become the sons of God, even to them that beunknown to them, they are always to read Ado-lieve on his name." John i. 12. There is no nai. They are opposed to Jehovists, of whom adoption, says the great Charnock, without rethe principal are Drusius, Capellus, Buxtorf, generation. "Adoption," says the same author, Alting, and Reland. "is not a mere relation: the privilege and the ADOPTION, an act whereby any person re-image of the sons of God go together. A state ceives another into his family, owns him for his of adoption is never without a separation from son, and appoints him his heir. 2. Spiritual defilement." 2 Cor. vi. 17. 18. The new name |