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Article CLASSICAL THEOLOGY.—VII. Page 1 of 2 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Classical Theology.—Vii.
CLASSICAL THEOLOGY . —VII .
LONDOX , SATURDAY , DECEMBER IT , 1859 .
JUPITER AND JULY ( CONTINUED ) . PTOLEMY ascribed to Jupiter , and Lis fatliei : Saturn , and to Mars , a separate epieyle of their own in tire circumference of" which he maintained that their planets wore fixed ; and that the epicycle of Jupiter and his proper heaven , were longerand nearer usthan those of Saturn ; but that those
, , of Mars were of greater magnitude , and of less distance from the earth than those of Jupiter . Ptolemy , who lived about two hundred years after Hipparohus , discovered that his great predecessor had been exact in determining the latitude of the fixed stars with their longitude , but that the latter had increased two degrees . Astronomers , since thc time of
Hipparohus and Ptolemy , acknowledge the stellary motion from west to east , by which the longitude of every fixed star has become above twenty-nine degrees more than it was in the time of the Saviour . But this progress having been found unequal in different countries , different periodical data or times have been assigned . Through the movements of the fixed stars not being regular , it is considered impossible to prescribe a precise determination of their . revolutions . Still some havo
computed that it would occupy thirty thousand , and others forty-nine thousand years to complete an entire revolution of them . Thus it is said that a star is lost , or newly discovered , when it has only absented itself or returned from the blue concave of another hemisphere , after an . intermission of three to four thousand years . Perhaps , therefore , at some far
future day , old maps and charts , now impracticable , may find their dates restored and correct . These declared motions of the heavenly bodies did not agree with tho opinion of the followers of Aristotle , whoso system determined that the heavens could not be subject to any alteration . They imagined a heaven to exist between the firmament and the
primum mobile , which , by its own ajipropriato motion , librated sometimes from east to west , and sometimes from west to east ; by which moans it accelerated and retarded the observable movement of the prefixed , or stated fixed stars . This new heaven was called the Ghrystalline . It is further recorded that the ecliptic , which was in Ptolemy ' s
time twenty-three degrees , fifty minutes , from tho Equator , was then twenty-three degrees and a half . Therefore , to account for this alteration , thoy conceived another crystal heaven , which they made to librate from thc north to the south , and from the south to the north , "fhe mysterious dealings of Providence may well be called an
incomprehensible problem , which can only be solved b y the spirit of Christian revelation . The Talmud does not more clearly explain the doctrine of Essenism than the Gospels . Mcodemus was reproved , being a -- ruler of the Jews , " for not knowing the meaning of the words , " Except a man be born againlie cannot seo the kingdom of God . " Mcodemus was
, a Pharisee , yet wc see he was not altogether ignorant of this doctrine of regeneration ; nor did he fail to , perceive that Christ could not perform tlio miracles he did , ' ¦ ' except God was with him . "
An angel of tho Lord interrogated Mano . ih as follows " Why askest tliou thus after my n . uiie , seeing that it is secret T Therein may it not be seen that the Deity contemplated some omnipotent object in thus withholding this great name 1 We shall more plainly elucidate for the general reader , as we proceed , the actual revelation oftlie mystery of
the angel being seen , and then , in disappearing , being onl y heard . The motives ofthe Almig hty proceed front his own inscrutable wisdom , ancl his thoughts are not as thoso of men . He visited and raised up judges for his acknowledged worshippers , whilst he still left the nations around them to be " as thorns" in their sides , and their gods ' - ' a snare" unto them . Indubitably , as , the deficiency of tlio finite is within
the infinite , Manoah . apprehended what ho wanted to know , and was not enabled to name . When Eomulns was fighting with the Sabines , and his little army , thrown into disorder , was about to retreat , it is related by Livy that he jirayed to Jupiter in the following words : — " 0 father of the gods ( flivuia Pater ) and of all
mankind , take away thc fear and stop the dishonourable flig ht of the Eomans ; at least at this place drive back the . enemy , and I vow to erect here a temple that shall stand for an everlasting memorial , that it was [ from thy immediate aid and protection that Eome itself received its preservation , " After this prayer his soldiers with one accord rallied , returned
again to the battle , and obtained a complete victory , whereupon Komulus built and consecrated a temple to Jupiter Stator . When the Gauls besieged the capital of Italy , an altar was raised to Jupiter Pistor because , it ivas said , he told tho Romans to throw loaves into the encampment of thoir hungry foe , by wliich contrivance the siege was raised . ' Through
divino favour , Gideon was enlightened and instructed to defeat the Midianites by employing trumpets and pitchers containing lamps . But it was not till after ho had seen tho fire come up out of the rock and consume his offering that he knew he had been speaking face to face with an angel of God . " Then , Gideon " ( let this text be well considered , as Jacob
and Moses , long before him , had done the same honour to Jehovah ) " built an altar thero unto tho Lord , and called it Johovah-shaloi u . " This , to the uninitiated , unless iu the credence of perfect faith , must bo , if not acatalcptic . il , at least unaccountable . Yet , sacred as is this record , profane writers havo converted it into fables and made it the source of many fictions , although through their own acquaintance with reli gious ordeals which taught them little reverence , it would seem
they were well aware of its truth . Joash named his son Jcrubbaal , saying , " Let Baal plead against him because he lias thrown down his altar . " Ho had cut down his grove also at tho command of tho Almighty . Never was the grove of oak and misletoe esteemed more vocal , inspiring , and sanctified by the administering Druids , than it held oracular and sacred
was by tho officiating Philcisophi '"—thc To / . uii ) cu liXkoi , and its other diviners . There is no accounting for the uncertain etymology of the Dodona . Some have supposed it to bo derived from the name of the son of Javan ( Dodanim ) , who there , or in that direction , of Epirus , settled a colony ; others from the Dodonean river
; and others from somo less likely origins , excepting the nymph of the sea , or rather tho prophetess , they named Dodona , who-was brought from Phoenicia into Greece . This was none else , we should surmise , than the goddess AocW // , the daughter of Jupiter and Europa . Prom a period immemorial , there existed near a city called Dodonein Chaoni . i
, a grove of oaks consecrated to Jupiter Dodonceus , which was famous for the most ancient oracles of the whole of Greece . To thoso who consulted it , two doves , from the highest tree in the forest , gave responses , or , as it- has been fabled , tho oaks themselves , as it were , uttered sentences ; by which is meant , that the Hamadryads and Dryads spoke there , and chanted forth oracles and
prophetic verses , inspired by Jove . Within or close to this enchanted wood was the far famed musical and proverbial Dodonean brass *) - cauldron , and the sacred fountain , so remarkable for its torch extinguishing and relighting properties .- Tho Trojihonian oracle , not so old as that of Dodonawas scarcely less famous . It owed its fame
, to Saon , with regard to Pausanias , but had its name from Trophonins , the brother of Agamedes , a predictor of future events , who dwelt on an eminence overlooking the surrounding wood , in the neighbourhood of Lebadea , a city of Boiotia .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Classical Theology.—Vii.
CLASSICAL THEOLOGY . —VII .
LONDOX , SATURDAY , DECEMBER IT , 1859 .
JUPITER AND JULY ( CONTINUED ) . PTOLEMY ascribed to Jupiter , and Lis fatliei : Saturn , and to Mars , a separate epieyle of their own in tire circumference of" which he maintained that their planets wore fixed ; and that the epicycle of Jupiter and his proper heaven , were longerand nearer usthan those of Saturn ; but that those
, , of Mars were of greater magnitude , and of less distance from the earth than those of Jupiter . Ptolemy , who lived about two hundred years after Hipparohus , discovered that his great predecessor had been exact in determining the latitude of the fixed stars with their longitude , but that the latter had increased two degrees . Astronomers , since thc time of
Hipparohus and Ptolemy , acknowledge the stellary motion from west to east , by which the longitude of every fixed star has become above twenty-nine degrees more than it was in the time of the Saviour . But this progress having been found unequal in different countries , different periodical data or times have been assigned . Through the movements of the fixed stars not being regular , it is considered impossible to prescribe a precise determination of their . revolutions . Still some havo
computed that it would occupy thirty thousand , and others forty-nine thousand years to complete an entire revolution of them . Thus it is said that a star is lost , or newly discovered , when it has only absented itself or returned from the blue concave of another hemisphere , after an . intermission of three to four thousand years . Perhaps , therefore , at some far
future day , old maps and charts , now impracticable , may find their dates restored and correct . These declared motions of the heavenly bodies did not agree with tho opinion of the followers of Aristotle , whoso system determined that the heavens could not be subject to any alteration . They imagined a heaven to exist between the firmament and the
primum mobile , which , by its own ajipropriato motion , librated sometimes from east to west , and sometimes from west to east ; by which moans it accelerated and retarded the observable movement of the prefixed , or stated fixed stars . This new heaven was called the Ghrystalline . It is further recorded that the ecliptic , which was in Ptolemy ' s
time twenty-three degrees , fifty minutes , from tho Equator , was then twenty-three degrees and a half . Therefore , to account for this alteration , thoy conceived another crystal heaven , which they made to librate from thc north to the south , and from the south to the north , "fhe mysterious dealings of Providence may well be called an
incomprehensible problem , which can only be solved b y the spirit of Christian revelation . The Talmud does not more clearly explain the doctrine of Essenism than the Gospels . Mcodemus was reproved , being a -- ruler of the Jews , " for not knowing the meaning of the words , " Except a man be born againlie cannot seo the kingdom of God . " Mcodemus was
, a Pharisee , yet wc see he was not altogether ignorant of this doctrine of regeneration ; nor did he fail to , perceive that Christ could not perform tlio miracles he did , ' ¦ ' except God was with him . "
An angel of tho Lord interrogated Mano . ih as follows " Why askest tliou thus after my n . uiie , seeing that it is secret T Therein may it not be seen that the Deity contemplated some omnipotent object in thus withholding this great name 1 We shall more plainly elucidate for the general reader , as we proceed , the actual revelation oftlie mystery of
the angel being seen , and then , in disappearing , being onl y heard . The motives ofthe Almig hty proceed front his own inscrutable wisdom , ancl his thoughts are not as thoso of men . He visited and raised up judges for his acknowledged worshippers , whilst he still left the nations around them to be " as thorns" in their sides , and their gods ' - ' a snare" unto them . Indubitably , as , the deficiency of tlio finite is within
the infinite , Manoah . apprehended what ho wanted to know , and was not enabled to name . When Eomulns was fighting with the Sabines , and his little army , thrown into disorder , was about to retreat , it is related by Livy that he jirayed to Jupiter in the following words : — " 0 father of the gods ( flivuia Pater ) and of all
mankind , take away thc fear and stop the dishonourable flig ht of the Eomans ; at least at this place drive back the . enemy , and I vow to erect here a temple that shall stand for an everlasting memorial , that it was [ from thy immediate aid and protection that Eome itself received its preservation , " After this prayer his soldiers with one accord rallied , returned
again to the battle , and obtained a complete victory , whereupon Komulus built and consecrated a temple to Jupiter Stator . When the Gauls besieged the capital of Italy , an altar was raised to Jupiter Pistor because , it ivas said , he told tho Romans to throw loaves into the encampment of thoir hungry foe , by wliich contrivance the siege was raised . ' Through
divino favour , Gideon was enlightened and instructed to defeat the Midianites by employing trumpets and pitchers containing lamps . But it was not till after ho had seen tho fire come up out of the rock and consume his offering that he knew he had been speaking face to face with an angel of God . " Then , Gideon " ( let this text be well considered , as Jacob
and Moses , long before him , had done the same honour to Jehovah ) " built an altar thero unto tho Lord , and called it Johovah-shaloi u . " This , to the uninitiated , unless iu the credence of perfect faith , must bo , if not acatalcptic . il , at least unaccountable . Yet , sacred as is this record , profane writers havo converted it into fables and made it the source of many fictions , although through their own acquaintance with reli gious ordeals which taught them little reverence , it would seem
they were well aware of its truth . Joash named his son Jcrubbaal , saying , " Let Baal plead against him because he lias thrown down his altar . " Ho had cut down his grove also at tho command of tho Almighty . Never was the grove of oak and misletoe esteemed more vocal , inspiring , and sanctified by the administering Druids , than it held oracular and sacred
was by tho officiating Philcisophi '"—thc To / . uii ) cu liXkoi , and its other diviners . There is no accounting for the uncertain etymology of the Dodona . Some have supposed it to bo derived from the name of the son of Javan ( Dodanim ) , who there , or in that direction , of Epirus , settled a colony ; others from the Dodonean river
; and others from somo less likely origins , excepting the nymph of the sea , or rather tho prophetess , they named Dodona , who-was brought from Phoenicia into Greece . This was none else , we should surmise , than the goddess AocW // , the daughter of Jupiter and Europa . Prom a period immemorial , there existed near a city called Dodonein Chaoni . i
, a grove of oaks consecrated to Jupiter Dodonceus , which was famous for the most ancient oracles of the whole of Greece . To thoso who consulted it , two doves , from the highest tree in the forest , gave responses , or , as it- has been fabled , tho oaks themselves , as it were , uttered sentences ; by which is meant , that the Hamadryads and Dryads spoke there , and chanted forth oracles and
prophetic verses , inspired by Jove . Within or close to this enchanted wood was the far famed musical and proverbial Dodonean brass *) - cauldron , and the sacred fountain , so remarkable for its torch extinguishing and relighting properties .- Tho Trojihonian oracle , not so old as that of Dodonawas scarcely less famous . It owed its fame
, to Saon , with regard to Pausanias , but had its name from Trophonins , the brother of Agamedes , a predictor of future events , who dwelt on an eminence overlooking the surrounding wood , in the neighbourhood of Lebadea , a city of Boiotia .