confesses the truth, will indeed, ascribe to the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, their distinct properties, but confess that there is no difference as to nature or substance."

Cyprian, who was contemporary with Origen, and who, though inferior to him in learning, greatly excelled him in pastoral zeal and fidelity, and in general Orthodoxy, expresses himself on the subject under consideration in a way which cannot be mistaken.

In his work on the Unity of the Church, he speaks thus "The Lord saith, I and my Father are one; and again, concerning the Father, the Sou and the Holy Ghost, it is written, These Three are One. Whoever does not hold this Unity, does not hold the law of God; does not hold the faith of the Father and of the Son; and does not hold the truth unto salvation."-And again, he says, Christ was God and man, that he might be the fitter to be the Mediator between them." Again, "This Christ is our God; and being a Mediator between two, he put on the man, that he might lead him to God his Father. Christ became man, that man might become like Christ.”

In a Council at Carthage, called to deliberate on the re-baptizing of heretics, and in which Cyprian presided, one of the sentences pronounced was the following "The Lord Jesus Christ, our God, and the Son of God the Father, hath built his Church on a rock, not on heresy. Wherefore those who are out of the Church, and stand in opposition to Christ, scatter his flock, and cannot be considered as baptized."

Dionysius of Alexandria, was one of the zealous champions for the truth, who opposed the he

VOL. III.

resy of Paul of Samosata. He is strongly commended by Basil, for always using the following form of doxology-"To God the Father, and the Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit, be glory and dominion, now and forever, world without end. A

men!"

Novatian, who was contemporary with Cyprian, is one of the most powerful witnesses that could be wished for, on the subject before us. He left a treatise expressly "On the Trinity."

Novatian contends for three Persons in the Godhead, cautioning his readers against Sabellianism, on the one hand, and Tritheism on the other. He maintains the eternal generation of the Son; and that Christ is very God and very man, in the same mysterious and glorious Person. And finally, he maintains the divine personality of the Holy Spirit.

About the time of Novatian, lived Arnabius, a distinguished father of the Church of Africa. This writer brings in the heathen as objecting to the worship of Christ. "Our gods," say they, " are not displeased with you for worshipping the Almighty God; but that you make a God of one that was born a man and put to death by the punishment of the cross, (an infamous punishment, only inflicted on vile persons,) and because you believe him to be still alive, and make daily supplications to him." To this he answers, first, upon their own principles, that admitting it were so, that Christ was only a mere man; yet he might with more reason deserve to be worshipped for his good deeds to mankind, than either their Bacchus, or Ceres, or Esculapius, or Minerva, or Triptolemus, or Hercules, &c.

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Secondly he answers, more closely, that the reason of their worshipping Christ, was the certain knowledge, that he was the True God, whom they could not but worship and honor. He proceeds, "What then? suppose any one, raving should ask, Is Christ God? We will reply, he is God, and God of the inmost powers of the soul."

So much for the direct testimony of the Early Fathers. In the substance of this testimony they all concur. I cannot recollect a single writer, prior to the Council of Nice, who so much as intimates either that he himself denied the divinity of Christ, or the Holy Trinity; or that the Christian Church denied it. The extracts which I have given, are a fair specimen of the manner in which the writers of that period express themselves on the subject, when it comes before them. An Extract. Dr. Miller.

of Israel, his fellows, and will put them with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in my hand. I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land. And I will make them one nation with the children of Judah, in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all; and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms, any more at all." -These several predictions, with many others of the same import, so far as they have respect to the dispersed descendants of the tribes of Israel, have never yet had the shadow of a fulfilment. They remain, therefore, to be fulfilled." "The outcasts of Israel" shall one day be converted and restored, and, in conjunction with the converted Jews, shall become a holy people to the Lord. But, if this is true, then they must still exist, somewhere, as a distinct people. For if they do not exist, they cannot be converted, and the fulfilment of the Divine predictions respecting them is impossible. Or, if they have become so incorporated with the idolatrous nations of the earth, as to be no longer distinguishable from them, then the fulfilment of these predictions can never be ascertained by facts. It never can be known, by facts, whether they are fulfilled or not. We infer therefore, as we think conclusively, from the predictions which have respect to the descendants of the tribes of Israel, that they must now be in existence, somewhere, as a distinct people.

But where are they? And who are they? These questions, so full of interest and importance,

may not admit of demonstrative answers. They may not admit of answers, which shall at once clear the subject of all remaining doubt or difficulty. Still, I am of opinion that answers may be given to them, which shall be, in a good degree, satisfactory.

The scriptures leave the ten tribes of Israel in Halah and Habor, by the river Gozen in Media, whither they were carried captive by Shalmanezer, the king of Assyria." This circumstance has led most modern inquirers to seek for the dispersed of Israel in the interior of Asia. And by some few inquirers, they have been supposed to be found there. Some have believed the Afghans of Persia to be the descendants of the ancient Israelites. But it has appeared, on more diligent examination, that the Afghans are bigoted Mahometans; and that whatever of their traditions might seem, at first, to be derived from the Old Testament, they were more probably derived from their Mahometan books and teachers. Others have regarded the black Jews of Cochin, as the existing remnant of the tribes of Israel. But were we to admit these to be Israelites, rather than Jews, (a supposition which is not impossible,) still, they are but a small part of the descendants of Israel. They are the descendants, perhaps, of the stragglers who were left behind, when the body of the nation removed to remoter regions.

I have said that the scriptures leave the ten tribes in Media, whither they had been carried captive by the king of Assyria. But although we have no further account of them in the canonical books of Scripture, we have in the apocryphal books. It is related in Esdras, that after they had

dwelt for a time in Media," they took this counsel among themselves, that they would leave the multitude of the heathen, and go forth into a farther country, where never mankind dwelt, that they might there keep their statutes, which they never kept in their own land." This Apocryphal writer proceeds to relate, that they went out of Media, in a northeasterly direction, and pursued a long journey" of a year and a half." (See 2 Esdras, xiii. 40.) Where they stopped, we are not informed; but their journey "of a year and a half," must necessarily carry them to a very great distance.

We have several predictions relative to the circumstances of the Israelites, during the period of their dispersion, which will throw some light on the present inquiry. Thus we are told by one of the prophets, that when "the outcasts of Israel" shall be restored, they shall remember the God of their fathers "in far countries"-and shall be gathered "from the west country." (Zech. viii. 7. and x. 9.) We may hence conclude, that the place of their present abode is some country far to the west of Palestine.Another tells us, that during their dispersion, "the Lord will feed them as a Lamb in a large place." (Hos. iv. 16.) We may presume, therefore, that the country where they are settled is not only far to the west of Palestine, but is "a large place"-a very extensive country. In this wide region, we may expect to find them roaming the solitary forests, and wandering about, in painful destitution of the word of God: For we are told, that "they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east," experiencing a famine, not of bread, or of

if not quite, upon the northwest coast of America; and on the other, we have a current tradition of the Indians, that their fathers actually came from this coast, and beyond it, from another country.

Another argument, to show that the American Indians are the descendants of the Israelites, is derived from their language. Between the language of these Indians and the Hebrew, there is, to say the least, a strong affinity. This fact has been noticed by many writers, and by those too who were best able to form a judgment in the case. I could mention as many as thirty words, beside several phrases of some considerable length, which are almost precisely the same in Indian as in Hebrew. The Hebrew word, Hallelujah, so common in sacred music among ourselves, is still more common in the sacred songs of the Indians. The Hebrew word Jehovah, is in Indian Yo-he-wah. The Hebrew Jah, another name of the Deity, is in Indian Yah. And the Hebrew Ale, still another name for the Deity, is in Indian precisely the same. The construction of the Indian languages, by means of prefixes and suffixes, also gives it a striking resemblance to the Hebrew. How shall we account for the strong affinity between these languages, unless we suppose the American Indians to be in fact Israelites?

Some have thought that a similarity might be traced between the features of the American Indians, and those of the Jews. This was the opinion of the celebrated William Penn. In describing the natives, soon after his arrival among them, he says, "I found them with like countenances with the Hebrew race;

and their children of so lively a resemblance to them, that a man would think himself in Duke's Place or Barry street, (the Jew's corner,) in London, when he sees them."

The American Indians have many traditions, corresponding with the sacred history, which can hardly be accounted for, unless on the supposition that their fathers were once acquainted with the inspired volume. They not only have traditions, like many of the heathen, of a general deluge, but retain some obscure ideas of numerous other facts, mentioned in the scriptures. They believe that the man was created from the earth, and that the woman was formed from a part of the man. They have a tradition of the longevity of the first inhabitants of the world, when men "lived till their feet were worn out with walking, and their throats with eating." They have a tradition of the confusion of tongues that "a long time ago, the people went to build a high place; and that while they were building, they lost their language, and could not understand each other." They have a tradition that, a great while since, they had a common father, and that this father had twelve sons-in allusion, doubtless, to the twelve sons of Jacob. They tell us, "that their ancestors had once a sanctified rod, which budded in a night's time”—like the rod of Aaron. They believe that "the Great Spirit, in very ancient times, often held councils and smoked with their fathers, and gave them laws to be observed; but that in consequence of their disobedience, he withdrew from them, and abandoned them to the vexations of the bad spirit."These traditionary accounts (to