mitted as proof of the doctrines, it must be supposed that the doctrines are, by their nature, capable of being thus proved. The doctrines are not first supposed to be true, and the miracles proved by them; but it is required merely that they are worthy of the idea we have of God, and then the miracles serve to prove that these doctrines come from him.

176. EXISTENCE OF THE ATTRIBUTES OF

God.

The following is the chain of propositions by which Clarke has so well proved the existence of the attributes of God.

Something has existed from all eternity. From the absolute impossibility there is of the eternal succession of dependant beings existing without a primitive and independant cause, we conclude the existence of a Being immutable and independant.

This immutable and independant Being must exist by himself; that is to say, exist necessarily since then the reason or cause of the existence rather than the nonexistence of that Being who derives not his existence from any thing out of himself,

must necessarily be in himself, and since there is a contradiction in supposing that his own will was the reason of his existence as an efficient cause, it follows that absolute necessity, as the positive or formal cause, must be the reason of that existence. This necessity is antecedent to the existence of the Being, not as to time, but in order of nature.

It is impossible that we should comprehend the substance or essence of the Supreme Being; Yet many essential attributes of his nature may be strongly demonstrated, as:

1st. That he must necessarily be eternal, 2d. That he must necessarily be infinite, and present every where.

3d. That he must necessarily be one.

4th. That the Being existing by himself as the first cause of all things, must be an intelligent Being.

5th. That the Being existing by himself, and the first cause of all things, is not a necessary agent, but acts with choice and liberty.

6th. That he must be all-powerful.

7th. That he must be infinitely wise.

8th. That he must be infinitely good, infinitely just, infinitely true, &c. (See No. 127.)

177. Injustice of Voltaire towards Plato.

Plato, like Timæus of Locris, speaks of two causes. Timæus had called one intelligence, and the other constraint or necessity. Plato names the first, the Being always the same, or immutable; and the second, a Being always another, or changeable: these are the names he gives to the substances, God and matter; so that, when Plato speaks of the same or of another, he always means God or matter. Voltaire therefore betray's much ignorance, or bad faith, when he pretends to ridicule what Plato has said of the same or another, without explaining first what he intended by those expressions.

178. MELCHISEDEC THE SAME AS SHEM.

It appears to me that Melchisedec was Shem, the second son of Noah. He is called Melchisedec, signifying in the Hebrew language King of Justice, serving as a figure

of Jesus Christ (See Psalm 110; and Epistle to the Hebrews, chap. 7). He was King of Salem, which was afterwards Jerusalem. His being said to have neither father nor mother, nor beginning nor end, should be understood only with relation to his dignity, as the high-priest of God derived not from succession, and incapable of being transmitted to others. And he is called a highpriest for ever, that is to say, in the register of the saints and in the holy scriptures. He could have been no other than Shem, who was the second son of Noah though he is called the first, for Moses positively asserts that Japhet was the eldest. (See Genesis, chap. 10, v. 22, in the Hebrew text, and in the Septuagint.) Japhet, as the eldest son, had right of primogeniture. But God ordered otherwise, and gave the blessing to Shem: which afterwards displayed itself two ways; in the expulsion of the sons of Canaan from their inheritance by the posterity of Shem, father of the Jews; and in the coming of the Gentiles to the religion of Christ. (Gencsis, chap. 9, v. 25 and 26.) The flood happened

in the year of the world 1659, and Shem lived 502 years after it. He must therefore have been 166 years cotemporary with Abraham, and ought to be regarded as a patriarch of the world. Such a title could not but be given to the immediate successor of so eminent a person as Noah, and to whom Abraham considered himself bound to offer a tenth of the spoils taken from the kings he should conquer (Heb. chap. 7). In return, Melchisedec, judging from the peculiar protection which God shewed to Abraham, that he should enjoy the same favours derived from his ancestors, transmitted to him the blessing received from Noah exactly as he had received it.

The three Targums, or paraphrases of the Jews, agree that Salem is Jerusalem. Those of Ben-Uziel and of Jerusalem also say that Shem is Melchisedec; called here by his proper title, the King of Righteous. ness. St. Jerome, and other Fathers of the Church, are of the same opinion.-See this subject very well treated of by Robert Fleming, new edition, page 501,