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THE 

GOD  OF  THE  JEWS; 

OR, 

BEING 

THE  CHARACTER  OF 

THE 

JEWISH  DEITY  DELINEATED. 

WITH 

STRICTURES   ON   THE   LIVES   OF   HEBREW    SAINTS; 

AND 

Uemati&0  on  X\^t  Cfjeocracg. 

TO    WHICH    IS    PREFIXED, 

A  LETTER  TO  THE  BISHOP  OF  LLANDAFF. 


BY  A  TRADESMAN. 


"  If  he  be  a  God,  let  him  plead  for  himself,  because  one  liatli  cast  down  his 
Jtltar."     JuDOEs  vi.  31. 

"  Wise  men  are  not  ))rofane  when  they  di-ny  tlic  Gods  of  the  common  ])Coi)le, 
hut  llicy  are  |)rofane  when  they  tliink.  the  Gods  an-  such  as  the  common  i)eoi)le 
l>olicve  in."     Sayino  of  Epicurus.  • 


^*tt^^k^MkMM«««< 


iLonlrou : 

PRINTKD.V  PUBLISHED  UY  R.  CAULILR,.-.5,  FLKET  STRFiyr, 


:f^-n3s 


PREFACE. 


Superstition  is  one  of  the  greatest  evils  that  can 
afflict  society  ;  it  instigates  to  the  commission  of  every 
crime,  and  the  practice  of  every  vice.     It  paralizes 
the  efforts  and  genius  of  a  people,  makes  them  slaves 
to  tyrants,  and  dupes  to  the  craft  and  fraud  of  impos- 
tors.    It  is  a  mortal  enemy  to  truth,  to  science,  and 
the  enlargement  of  the  human  faculties.     The  best 
remedies  for  this  dreadful  malady  are  the  cultivation  of 
science  and   philosophy,  discarding  of  prejudice  and 
believing  on  trust,  and  a  firm  determination  to  exa- 
mine for  ourselves,  and  receive  the  truth  in  simplicity. 
It  was  these  considerations  that  induced  the  author  to 
examine  the  subject  contained  in  the  following  work, 
the  result  of  which  he  now  takes  the  liberty  of  laying 
before  the  public.     For  his  own  information  he  ventured 
to   examine  writings  which  are  said  to  be  the  oracles 
of  truth,  the  fountain  of  wisdom,  and  an  infallible  rule 
of  faith  and  manners.     It  is  in  them,  say  the  priest- 
hood,  that  a  God  of  "  holiness^  truths  justice,  good- 
ness" is  announced  to  mankind ;  it  is  in  them  that  an 
infinitely  wise,  good,  and  omnipotent  being  is  exhibit- 
ed to  our  view ;  and  it  is  in  them  that  we  see  display- 
ed all  those  attributes  and   perfections  of  Deity   thajt 
.are  the  object  of  our  imitation. 

Morality,   the  author  considers  "  a  science  that  iias 
for  its  object  the  promotion  of  humun  happiness."     It 


IV  PREFACE. 

must,  llicn  lore,  be  fomidcd  on  the  nature  of  man,  his 
various  relations   in  society,  and  the  duties  resulting 
tVoin  tliem.     lie  has  invariably  found,  that  priests  and 
their  votaries  have  cohj^tantly  endeavoured  to  with- 
draw it  from  this  basis,   and  found  it  upon  conformity 
to  the  will,  and  imitation   of  the  conduct   of  an  un- 
known being,  whom  they  have  taken  the  liberty  to  de- 
pict and  dress  up  as  suited  their  own  peculiar  interest. 
Their   rhorality    is  essehtially   different  from    natural 
morality,  or  virtue  ;  it  consists  in  frivolous  observances, 
idltj  and  fantastic  ceremonies,  ahd  not  utifrequently  in 
the  ddmmission  of  enormous  Crimes ;  but,  above  all,  irt 
a  blind  credulity  and  implicit  faith.     Men,  conducting 
themselves  by  these  principles,  must  then  be  governed 
by  the  caprice  and  selfishness  of  those  who  claim  the 
right  of  expounding   the  will  of  the  unknovvn  Being, 
and  they  have  ever  Imd,  and  for  eVer  Will  have,  a  sepa- 
rate interest  from  that  of  their  fellow-men.     The  author 
has  endeavoured  to  detect  this  quackery  and   expose 
the  fraud.     He  has  seized  their  park  of  artillery,  and 
played  it  off  on    themselves.     For  this  the  ignorant 
and  the  interested,  the  bigot  and  the  hypocrite,  Will 
most  cordially  join  in  loading  him  With  abuse.     But 
they  are  welcome,  as  he  is  verj''  well  convinced,  that 
calumny  is  the  ratio  ultima  of  bigots  when  they  have 
no  power  to  persecute.     Those  who  cannot  reason  are 
surely  entitled  to  the   privilege   of  scolding.     Bias- 
phemer.  Infidel,  and  Atheist,  are  the  best  titles  he  has 
any  reason  to  expect.     But  those  who  call  God  good 
and  merciful,  and  then  make  him  the  author  of  cruelty 
and  injustice ;  who  call  him  the   God  of  truth,  and 
then   father   upon  him  innumerable    lies ;  who  make 
him  immutable,  and  then  represent  him  as  continually 


PREFACE.  V 

changing  his  mind  ;  and  who  clothe  him  with  incon- 
sistent quahties  and  contradictory  attributes ;  these  are 
the  true  blasphemers.  The  author  by  exposing  it 
means  to  do  it  away.  If  to  discredit  wild  rhapsodies, 
inconsistent  fables,  and  flat  contradictions,  be  infi- 
delity, then  is  he  an  infidel.  Atheist  is  a  term  that 
has  been  most  liberally  applied  to  the  wisest  and  best 
of  men  in  all  ages,  and  when  he  knows  that  such  men 
as  Tillotson  and  Locke  have  been  branded  with 
atheism  by  the  fanatics  of  the  times,  it  would  ill  be- 
come him  to  attempt  repelling  the  charge.  But  if  to 
strip  nature  or  matter  (which  you  please)  of  die  powers 
and  energies  inherent  in  it,  and  inseparable  from  it, 
and  place  them  in  incomprehensible  non-entities  and 
metaphysical  abstractions,  be  atheism,  then  theolo- 
gians are  real  Atheists.  He  may,  perhaps,  also  be  ac- 
cused of  turning  serious  subjects  into  banter  and  ridi- 
cule. The  weak  have  always  been  fond  of  crying  up 
nonsense  as  sacred,  and  knaves  chime  in  with  them. 
He  would  further  observe,  tiiat  the  prophet  Elijah  did 
not  scruple  to  try  BaaPs  divinity  by  the  test  of  ridi- 
cule, and  the  adorers  of  Jehovah  will  not  hesitate  about 
the  application  of  their  own  principles. 

To  the  unprejudiced,  and  the  friends  of  truth  and 
free  inquiry,  the  Author  begs  leave  to  appeal ;  by  their 
judgment  he  will  stand  or  fall.  The  candid  he  hopes 
will  excuse  the  defects  in  this  performance  ;  want  of  a 
classical  education,  and  the  situation  of  a  tradesman 
who  can  only  write  when  he  has  finished  the  task  of 
the  day,  he  is  conscious  will  require  very  liberal 
indulgence. 

The  Author. 


LETTER 


TO 

THE  RIGHT  REVEREND  FATHER  IN  OOTD, 

RICHARD  WATSON, 

BISHOP  OF  LLANDAFF. 


MY    LORD, 

I  AM  one  of  those  tradesmen^  whom  you  are  so 
anxious  to  preserve  from  the  contamination  of  irreU- 
gion,  who  ventures  to  lay  before  your  reverence  the 
result  of  my  examination  of  the  Bible,  according  to 
the  "  better  mode'*  you  prescribe  to  Thomas  Paine. 
In  your  fifth  letter*  you  say,  "  Permit  me  to  state  to 
you  what  would  in  my  opinion  have  been  a  better 
mode  of  proceeding,  better  suited  to  the  character  of 
an  honest  man,  sincere  in  his  endeavours  to  search  out 
truth.  Such  a  man,  in  reading  the  Bible,  would,  in 
the  first  place,  examine  whether  the  Bible  attributed 
to  the  Supreme  Being  any  attributes  repugnant  to  holi- 
ness, truth,  justice,  goodness  ;  whether  it  subjected 
him  to  human  infirmities ;  whether  it  excluded  him 
from  the  government  of  the  world,   or  assigned  the 


'  There  is  a  class  of  men  for  whom  I  have  the  greatest  rrsjM.ct,  and 
whom  I  am  anxious  to  preserve  from  the  rontamination  of  your  irrcli- 
gion — Tl)p  merchants,  manufacturers,  and  tradesmen  of  the  kingdom. 
Apology  for  »he  Bible,   Let.  x. 

'  Apology  for  the  Bible. 


8  LETTER  TO 

oriq;in  of  it  to  clinnco,  and  an  otornal  conflict  of  atoms." 
YoM  tluMi  proceed,  "  finding  nothing  of  this  kind  in 
tlic>  JJihlc ;"  but  here  I  must  pause  in  my  endeavours 
to  search  out  truth,  according  to  the  method  you  pre- 
scribe. 1  have  found  the  13il)lc  attributing  to  the  Jew- 
ish Deity  attributes  repugnant  to  holiness,  truth,  jus- 
tice, goodness  ;  but  whether  the  Jews  or  your  reve- 
rence take  him  for  the  Supreme  Being  or  not,  I  will 
not  pretend  to  say.  Iksides,  1  have  found  it  repre- 
senting him  with  human  parts,  as  well  as  human  pas- 
sions and  infirmities.  If  it  does  not  excUide  him  from 
the  government  of  the  world,  it  makes  him  ignorant  of 
what  is  going  on  in  it,  and  represents  him  as  partial,  ar- 
bitrary, and  capricious.  It  makes  him  a  ferocious 
monster,  cruel,  unjust^  awd  deceitful  ;  making  those 
miserable  whom  his  omnipotence  caused  to  exist. 
And  if  it  does  not  assign  the  origin  of  (he  world  to 
chance,  it  constructs  one  very  different  from  this  ,we 
live  in,  and  as  ridiculous  as  an  eternal  conflict  of  at6ms 

can  be  supposed  to  do^    r  m|m'.v' !  J:  •r^a.jM 

Now,  my  Lord,  haying  found  yoiir  statement  raise 
and  erroneous,  the  Bible  containing  matters  quite  the 
reverse  of  what  yovi  would  make  us  believe,  I  hope 
your  reverence  will  excuse  me  from  troubling  myself 
with  the  rest  of  your  Jindings,  which  would  require 
the  leisure  and  revenue  of  a  Bishop  to  go  through  with, 
and  in  th^  issue  might  prove  equally  unsuccessful.  "I 
trusl;,  tjierefore,  that  before  I  proceed  in  my  inquiries^ 
yquT  Reverence  wiUcpmlescend  to  peruse  the  following 
*'  (character  of  the  Jewish  God/'  as  it;  i^s  given  in  the 
Bijlijle,  and  say  whether  your  assertioiis  are' true.  Will 
ypii  \hcn  come  forward  to  the  world  and  say,  that  thiij 
being  is  a  God  of  holiness,  truth,  justice,  goodness  ? 
Will  you  say  that  the  most  dreadful  enormities  ever 
heard  of  are  only  acts  of  "  good  policy  combined  with 
mercy  ?''  or  that  the  mad  ravings  and  wild  whimsies 
of  an  ignorant  and  savage  people  are  the  unerring  dic- 
tates of  wisdom  and  truth  ?  Such  assertions,  I  trust, 
will  never  be  made  by  one  who  has  sucli  pretensions 


THE  BISHOP  OF  LLANDAFF.  '^9 

to  learning  and  candour  as  your  reverence  ;  they  would 
only  suit  the  character  of  those  who  hire  themselves 
to  preach  and  pray  any  thing  for  a  piece  of  bread  ; 
whose  conscience;  is  in  the  keeping  of  the  powers 
that  be. 

You  say,  "  1  hope  there  is  no  want  of  charity  in 
saying,  that  it  would  have  been  fortunate  for  the 
Christian  world  had  Thomas  Paine's  life  been  termi- 
nated before  he  had  fulfilled  his  intentions  of  pub- 
lishing his  thoughts  on  religion."  If  there  be  no  want 
of  charity  in  the  case,  there  is  surely  great  want  of 
prudence.  If  the  Christian  religion  be  as  is  pretended, 
"  the  plan  of  infinite  wisdom,  supported  by  Almighty- 
power,"  it  has  nothing  to  fear  from  any  thing  that  can 
be  either  said  or  written  against  it.^  The  betraying  of 
fear  in  this  manner  is  tantamount  to  a  proof  of  real 
unbelief.  This  charity  of  yours  may  be  Christian 
charity,  as  it  was  practised  by  the  church  at  the  time 
of  Constantine,  at  the  period  of  the  Crusades,  at  that 
of  the  Reformation,  and  at  the  present  moment  :  it 
may  be  Christian  charity  at  Rome,  at  Lisbon,  at  Cal- 
garth  Park,  and  in  the  Holy  Office  !  but  I  do  not 
think  it  is  the  charity  of  any  philanthropic  mind.  It 
is  astonishing  to  hear  a  clergyman  of  the  Church  of 
England  talk  about  the  divine  origin  and  holiness  of 
religion,  when  he  would  not  scruple  to  prostitute  her 
most  solemn  ordinances  to  qualify  the  vilest  of  man- 
kind for  the  meanest  office  of  the  state. 

Your  reverence  thinks,  that  Thomas  Paine,  in  ac- 
complishing his  intentions,  "  will  have  unsettled  the 
faith  of  thousands."     There  are  thousands  whose  faith 


'  It  seems  the  arts  and  sciences  can  support  themselves  without 
leffal  establishments,  and  penal  statutes;  but  our  holy  Christian 
lelifjion,  al(lionp;h  of  divint-  ori^rinal,  is  too  tender  a  plant  to  wilh- 
srand  the  cutting  winds  and  nipping  frosts  of  carnal  argiinuntatioii. 
It  h;is  been  at  all  times  necessary  to  fence  it  round  with  penal  laws, 
ami  Rcrure  its  growth  liy  lire  and  faggot,  fines  and  imprisonment,  in 
every  Christiau  country. 


10  LETTER  TO 

HO  hook  wliatcvrr  ran  unsettle^ :  lio  has  not  unsettled 
the  faith  of  many  elt'rovm<"n  of  tlio  church,  I  presume; 
nor  ever  will,    while  faith  is  ibunded  on   the  evidence 
of  things  seen  and  felt.     It  takes,  1  am  told,  five  mil- 
hons  sterling,  or  more  of  evidence,  annually  to  uphold 
the  faith  of  the  national  clergy  of  your  church  ;   it 
were  a  pity  if  that  could  not  "maintain  faith,  or  if  a 
paltry  pamphlet  could  unsettle  it,   when  supported  by 
such  weighty  arguments.     Your  reverence   appears  to 
consider  the  faith    of  the   great  and   opulent  to  be  ra- 
ther of  a    "  (|uestionable   shape  ;" — that  is  not  alto- 
gether candid  ;— if  any  such  there  are,  they  can   oidy 
be  the  unpensioned   few.     Jam  sure  the  others  have 
rehgion  and  faith  to  the  full.     Have  they  not  given 
sufficient  evidence  of  it  already  ?    Have  they  not  re- 
peatedly declared  religion  to  be  one  of  the  causes  of 
the  present  war  ?     Have  they  not  also  declared   it  to 
be  "  good  policy  combined   with  mercy"   to  extermi- 
nate a   nation  of  infidels  ?    and  have  they  not  both 
fasted  and  prayed  for  success  to  the  cause  ?     With  re- 
gard to  their  motives  or  sincerity  I   say  nothing,  but 
such  an  observation  in  the  present  time  certainly  comes 
from  your  reverence  with  a  very  bad  grace. 

Now  the  great  question  occurs,  What  is  to  settle 
the  faith  of  the  merchant,  manufacturer,  and  trades- 
man, which  is  thus  likely  to  be  unsettled  by  this  terri- 
ble Age  of  Reason  ?  To  be  sure,  a  tradesman,  who 
labours  hard  to  maintain  himself  and  family,  who  has 
no  salary  for  believing,  cannot  reasonably  be  expected 
to  have  such  a  settled  faith  as  a  Bishop  of  10,0001.  ii 
year,  or  a  Prime  Minister  who  can  command  the  na- 
tional purse.  He  may  surely  be  allowed  some  doubts 
concerning  those  things  of  which  you  write  so  fluently. 
'i  here  is  a  great  difference  between  the  faith  of  a 
Bishop  and  that  of  a  tradesman  ;  the  one  brings  much^ 
the  other  costs  him  much  ;  the  faith  of  the  one  lessens 
the  comforts  of  life,  that  of  the  other  adds  to  them. 
There  can  be  little  wonder,  then,  if  tradesmen's  faith  be 
in  a  declining  state.     But  let  them  partake  a  little  of 


THE  BISHOP  OF   LLANDAFF.  11 

tliat  illuminating  gospel  evidence,  of  which  the  Bishops 
receive  so  large  an  annual  portion,  then  you  would 
certainly  see  this  "  grain  of  mustard-seed"  become  a  tree 
in  which  the  fowls  of  heaven  might  build  their  nests. 
But  if  the  Ciiurch  be  not  inclined  to  part  with  any 
portion  of  this  evidence,  which  I  much  fear,  as  she 
may  think  itall  little  enough  for  her  own  consumption, 
perhaps  reason  may  be  exalted  above  faith,  which 
would  be  a  sad  thin"' !  I  wish  that  tliis  matter  mav  be 
better  attended  to  than  it  has  been.  Is  it  not  a  shame 
that  such  sums  of  money  should  be  expended  in 
hiring  missionaries  to  convert  Indians,  Negroes,  Caf- 
Irarians,  and  Otahcitans,  while  our  own  infidels  are 
suftrred  to  remain  in  unbelief?  The  old  proverb  says, 
"  Charity  begins  at  home  ;"  why  then  go  to  such  an 
insmense  distance  for  proselytes  ?  1  am  fully  confident, 
that  if  all  the  money  that  htis  been  collected  by  the 
various  missionary  societies  were  to  be  distributed 
among  the  dilferent  infidels  in  this  country,  proportion- 
ably  to  the  degrees  of  their  unbelief,  there  would  very 
\cw  remain.  Is  it  not  as  possible  to  gain  over  a  free- 
thinki-r  with  money  as  to  bribe  aj)atriot?  Or  will  an 
apostate  I'rom  the  cause  of  reason  make  a  worse  advo- 
cate for  Christianity,  than  a  renegado  Whig,  who  hires 
himself  to  flefend  despotism  and  tory  principles  ?  if  the 
church  were  to  make  use  of  solid  gold,  instead  of  flimsy 
arguments,  there  could  not  be  a  doubt  of  her  success. 

The  tradesmen  of  this  country  are  under  great  obli- 
gations to  your  rev(Tence,  for  tlu^  j)aiiis  you  have  taken 
to  guard  them  against  the  contamination  of  irreligion  ; 
the  great  and  opulent  you  have  l(;ft  to  shift  for  them- 
selves. This  is  wisely  done  ;  their  faith,  1  believe, 
•stands  ujjon  the  same  basis  as  the  faith  of  Bisliops,  so 
there  can  be  no  fear  of  it.  But  what  would  b(xx)me 
of  the  clergy  if  faith  wore  to  disappear  among  the 
lovv«ir  or<l(irs  ?  J'"/itli(r  they  would  Ixjobliged  to  j)ack 
up  their  miracles  and  mvsteries,  and  n.arch  oil'  wilh 
thiMu  lor  Heaven,  the  j)I.ice  whence  they  «iinie,  or 
solicit  the    Lord  lijr  a    renewal,   of  the   miracle  o*"  the 


12  LETTER  TO 

manna,  fthough  it  is  rather  light  food),  and  live  upon 
grace.     Tlic  dilemma  is  most  distressing. 

^  our  reverence  appears  to  lay  a  great  stress  upon  the 
doctrine  of  future  rewards  and  punishments,  especially 
the  consolation  it  will  afford  the  unhappy  virtuous  to 
be  assured  of  a  future  recompence.^  In  my  opinion, 
however,  if  you  could  give  them  the  comfortable  assu- 
rance of  a  present  one,  it  would  be  far  preferable.  It 
were  a  task  worthy  of  the  learning  and  piety  of  a 
Bishop,  to  explain  why  the  virtuous  are  unhappy,  or 
want  to  be  fed  with  an  imaginary  future  recompence. 
If  your  reverence  admits  that  God  permits  or  causes 
the  wicked  to  be  happy,  and  the  virtuous  miserable  in 
this  life,  you  will  then  contradict  the  known  rules  of 
ratiocination,  to  say  that  he  will  reverse  their  condition 
in  another.  In  common  life  we  never  infer,  that  be- 
cause a  man  has  been  long  unjust,  he  will  become  per- 
fectly equitable  ;  that  because  a  thief  has  been  long  in 
the  habits  of  pilfering,  he  will  become  rigidly  honest. 
This  justifies  the  old  observation,  that  "  the  rules  of 
just  reasoninsf  must  be  always  inverted  when  applied 
to  theology."  Infidels  might,  perhaps,  make  some 
shrewd  guesses  at  the  cause  of  this  strange  phenome- 
non, "  of  the  virtuous  being  unhappy,"  were  it  not 
for  offending  the  powers  that  be,  who  are  very  apt  to 
construe  such  matters  into  a  seditious  libel.  Neither 
can  I  find  that  the  doctrine  of  future  punishments  pre- 
vented the  Spaniards  from  exercising  the  greatest  bar- 
barities on  inoffensive  Indians,   or  that  it  stopped  the 


The  Lord  forg-ot  to  irtstruct  his  own  chosen  people  in  this  impor- 
tant doctrine  ;  for  a  proof  of  which  read  the  Bible,  and  Bishop  War- 
burton's  Divine  Legation  of  Moses.  It  is  a  fact  worthy  of  notice, 
that  ignorant,  savage  people  always  have  recourse  to  violence  ahd 
cruelty  to  correct  the  errors  of  society  ;  an  enlightened  legislator 
proceeds  on  other  grounds.  The  hell  and  the  devils  of  our  forefathers 
were  the  most, terrific  beings  the  imagination  was  able  to  paint.  It  is 
curious  to  contrast  the  hell  of  Ralph  Erskine,  in  his  Gospel  Sonnets, 
and  Thomas  Boston,  in  his  Fourfold  S'talr,  with  the  sentiments  of  Dr. 
Blair  and  others  of  our  modern  divines  on  that  subject. 


« 


THE  BISHOP  OF  LLANDAFF.  h 

merciless  Inquisitors  from  treating  the  unhappy  victims 
of  the  Holy  Office  with  the  most  sanguinary  cruelty. 
Has  it  prevented  the  flagitious  statesmen  of  our  day 
from  desolating  the  fair  face  of  Europe  ;  or  priests  from 
instigating  the  bloody  contest  ?  Has  the  fear  of  future 
punishments  put  an  end  to  the  slave  trade  ?  Or  has  it 
quenched  a  thirst  for  gold  and  domination?  If  it  has 
produced  none  of  those  salutary  effects,  I  should  be 
glad  to  know  the  extent  of  its  beneficial  influence. 
6ut  if  we  attend  to  the  slow,  though  sure  and  effica- 
cious amelioration  of  our  condition,  by  the  introduc- 
tion of  knowledge  and  science,  we  shall  there  recog- 
nize the  true  remedy  for  rectifying  the  disorders  Of 
society. 

Your  reverence  affects  great  concern  about  the  in- 
terest of  morality,  if  ever  Deism  should  become  pre- 
valent. To  be  sure,  you  have  displayed  a  good  deal 
of  priestly  eloquence  to  persuade  us  that  Judaism  and 
Christianity  are  godly  systems,  and  of  their  beneficial 
tendency.  But  whoever  will  read  ecclesiastical  his- 
tory, will  soon  perceive  their  fatal  influence  on  the 
liappiness  of  mankind  ;  they  may  there  sec  Christian 
and  Jewish  saints  "  emulate  in  the  transcendent  flagi- 
tiousness  of  their  lives,  the  impure  morals  of  the 
iiible  Deity."  Unhappily,  it  is  not  in  Christianity 
that  we  must  look  for  the  friend  of  morality.  Were  it 
necessary  to  enter  into  a  discussion  of  the  merits  of 
the  two  systems  of  nature  and  revelation,  permit  me 
to  state  to  you  what,  in  my  opinion,  would  have  been 
a  "  better  mode"  of  proceeding  than  writing  an  Apo- 
logy for  the  Bible,  better  suited  to  the  character  of  an 
impartial  inquirer  after  truth.  If  sincere  in  your  de- 
sire to  distinguish  the  true  character  of  Deism,  you 
would  have  examined  if  it  had  raised  any  wars,  set  oti 
foot  any  crusades,  destroyed  any  villages  or  sac!'ke(l 
towns,  burnt  any  cities,  or  had  any  ln(]uisitions  and 
auto  defcs;  if  its  history  recorded  any  mnssarres  and 
rcbcMJinns  ;  if  it  re(inires  a  Unlh  of  the  produce  of 
cultivated  natun.',   the  j)rejudices  of  education,   and  a 


^  LETTEU  TO 

uiinibor  of  artifices  to  kcop  up  its  semblance  amonjj 
maukiiul.  Having  I'ouncl  none  of  those  things  in 
Deisin,  but  finding  them  all  in  Christianity,  you 
would  also  examine  the  pure  and  simple  precepts  of 
reason,  and  contrast  them  with  the  absurdities,  con- 
tradictions, and  inconsistencies  of  revelation,  which 
have  occasioned  ten  thousand  stupid  sects,  contending 
with  c!ach  other  about  the  most  contemptible  follies, 
who  have  convulsed  society,  and  deluged  the  world 
wit]i  blood.  Recollect  the  maxim  of  your  God,  "  by 
their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them.'' 

My  Lord,  this  little  work  has  a  peculiar  claim  to 
your  patronage ;  it  was  in  compliance  with  your 
"  better  mode"  of  examining  the  Bible  that  ever  it 
had  an  existence  ;  it  therefore  flies  for  protection  to 
your  reverence,  to  shelter  itself  under  the  wings  of 
your  episcopal  dignity.  It  is  true,  I  have  not  found 
that  character  of  "  holiness,  truth,  justice,  goodness," 
ascribed  to  the  Deity,  which  you  so  confidently  main- 
tain, and  I  am  persuaded  it  cannot  be  found  there ;  so 
far  from  that,  it  ascribes  to  God  cruelty,  injustice,  de- 
ceit, fraud,  and  the  worst  of  human  vices.  It  is  true, 
that  I  am  a  tradesman,  in  want  both  of  learning  and 
leisure,  therefore  unable  to  quarrel  about  Greek  and 
Hebrew  books ;  but  we  have  all  reason  and  common 
sense  sufficient,  1  apprehend,  to  determine  what  are 
the  duties  of  life.  It  is  of  no  manner  of  consequence 
what^character  any  book  gives  of  God  ;  the  great  ques^ 
tion  to  be  decided  is,  whether  there  exists  in  nature  a 
Being  of  holiness,  truth,  justice,  goodness,  who 
punishes  vice  and  rewards  virtue,  who  protects  inno^ 
cence  and  succours  the  oppressed,  whose  government 
is  visible  and  efficacious,  and  need^  not  the  defpnce  of 
quirks,  quibbles,  and  sophistry.     '.,,-,  ■■,<'■ 

To  conclude :  your  reverence  has  certainly  made  a 
very  prudent  resolution  to  engage  no  more  in  the  dis- 
pute ;  already  have  the  quarrels  of  theology  desolated 
the  world,  nor  is  there  a  Christian  country  but  has 
reason  to  mourn    its  guilty  wars;  it  therefore  becomes 


THE  BISHOP  OF  LLANDAFF.  15 

your  Lordship,  and  the  rest  of  your  bretliren,  to  set 
eminent  examples  of  meekness,  of  moderation,  and 
forbearance.  Too  long-  has  your  order  been  the  fire- 
brands of  society  ;  become,  for  once,  the  harbingers  of 
peace.  Seek  no  longer  to  rekindle  the  flames  of  civif 
discord,  nor  to  drag  society  back  to  the  days  of  monk- 
ish ignorance  and  Gothic  barbarism ;  but  rather  assist 
philosophy  to  dispel  those  remaining  errors  and  pre- 
judices which  prevent  the  further  amelioration  of  our 
condition.  In  such  a  work  your  reverence  may  ex- 
])ect  the  co-operation,  the  heart,  and  good  wishes  of  all 
good  men,  among  whom  shall  be  that  of 

The  Author. 

March  27,  1799. 


\. 


fiiiili 


li. 


'»MT:j/.    Al\'\ 


THE 

GOD  OF  THE  JEWS; 

^  OR, 

JEHOVAH  UNVEILED, 


Men  have  always  differed  in  their  opinions  about 
the  origin  of  things,  and  the  formation  of  the  universe. 
Some  give  to  it  an  author,  an  architect,  and  creator, 
who  gave  it  existence  by  his  power,  and  governs  it  by 
his  wisdom.  Others  will  have  it  to  be  self-existent, 
governed  by  laws  eternal  and  immutable,  and  subsist- 
ing by  energies  inherent  in  its  nature.  The  believers 
of  a  Deity  are  not  agreed  about  the  arguments  which 
demonstrate  his  existence  ;  those  which  one  party  lay 
the  greatest  stress  upon,  are  viewed  by  the  other  as 
futile  and  inconclusive  ;  nor  are  they  more  in  unison 
respecting  his  nature  and  attributes.  This  difference 
of  opinion  is  by  no  means  confined  to  the  vulgar,  it 
subsists  chiefly  among  men  of  learning  and  science: 
never  did  two  of  the  most  ignorant  nations  on  earth 
difier  more  on  this  subject  than  that  of  the  most  learned 
theologians.  It  is  but  a  very  small  part  of  the  uni- 
verse that  we  can  see,  and  of  that  we  know  extremely 
little,  no  man  having  ever  yet  arrived  at  the  knowledge 
of  first  prin(i[)les  ;  our  notions  of  (iod  can  therefore 
be  no  otherwise  right  or  wrong  than  as  they  tend  to 
promote  the  welfare  or  obstruct  the  happiness  of  so- 
cial life. 

Whenever  a  particular  divinity  comes  to  be  set  up 
\.-  c 


18  TFIE  COD  OF  THE  JEWS; 

and  rstal)lisbc(l  in  any  conntry,  tlio  body  of  the  people 
never  put  tluMnselves  to  tlio  tmul)le  uf  inquiring  into 
the  proof's  of  his  existence,  or  wliat  is  his  nature  and 
attributes,  "^lliese  things  they  believe  upon  the  word  of 
the  priest  anti  the  legislator.  The  power,  wisdom, 
and  goodness  of  the  God  is  then  extolled  to  the  skies  ; 
his  protection  and  favour  is  most  earnestly  solicited, 
and  his  anger  and  resentment  sincerely  deprecated.  It 
is  his  conduct  that  is  to  be  copied,  it  is  his  character 
we  are  to  imitate,  and  it  is  his  will  that  is  to  regulate 
the  actions  of  our  lives.  Whenever  the  will  of  an 
unknown  being  is  made  the  standard  by  which  the 
human  race  are  to  reoulate  their  actions,  it  becomes 
of  importance  to  know  what  it  is,  and  through  what 
channel  it  derives  to  us.  The  worshippers  of  the 
Jewish  Deitv  will  have  him  to  be  the  Lord  of  the 
whole  earth  ;  it  is  from  him  they  say  that  every  good 
and  pexfect  gift  cometh  ;  he  gives  rain  and  fruitful  sea- 
sons, and  turneth  the  hearts  of  man  as  he  turneth  the 
rivers  of  water.  -  Cut  who  were  these  Jews  ?  an  igno- 
rant and  savage  people.  And  how  came  it  that  they 
became  the  depositories  of  the  knowledge  and  will  of 
God  ?  Of  this  they  give  us  no  proof  but  their  ov^n 
assertion.  What  reason  have  we  to  credit  their  asser- 
tion }  We  have  no  reason  but  the  interest  of  a  few,  and 
the  credulity  of  the  many.  Ten  thousand  times  ten 
thousand  volumes  have  been  written  to  make  that  clear 
which  i§  impenetrably  dark,  and  to  substantiate  the 
"  baseles?  fabric  of  a  vision."  Nature  is  the  storehouse 
of  human  learning,  and  it  is  from  that  great  reservoir 
that  all  the  springs  must  be  fed  ;  the  boundaries  « 
jiature  are  the  limits  of  our  knowledge,  beyond  these 
^re  the  regions  of  chimeras  and  of  dreams.  If  ever  it 
fall  to  the  lot  of  man  to  acquire  any  knowledge  of  God, 
it  must  be  from  nature,  which  no  man  can  alter ;  not 
from  books,  which  ev€ry  body  may  interpolate,  alter, 
and  explain,  as  suits  their  ijiterest  or  caprice.  One 
thing  we  are  sure  of,  that  whenever  the  works  which 
we   see  contradict  the  stories  that  books  tell  of  God, 


OR,  JEHOVAH  UNVEH.ED.  lO' 

they  are  fatso.  Cnnf  we  ever  hope  to  find  the  know- 
ledge of  God  in  A  book  ?  Where  and  how  are  the 
diithors  to  procure  inforniation  ?  Or  can  such  a  book 
be  incorruptible  and  immutable,  while  nature  is  hable 
to  change  ? 

But  setting  aside  these  objections,  we  shall  endeavour 
to  draw  the  character  of  the  Jewish  God  from  the  Bible 
only,  which  his  votaries  say  is  his  own  word.     Tiiere, 
instead   of  a  just   and  merciful   God,  the  benevolent 
father  of  his  children,  the  universal    parent,  and  the 
re  warder  of  virtue  and   punisher  of  vice,    we  find  a 
being  cruel,  unjust,  angry,  vindictive,  and  fluctuating. 
In  short,  a  being  made   up  of  every  bad  passion,  and 
the   worst  of  human  vices.     The  baneful  effects  that 
these  representations  of  the  Divinity  have  had  upon 
the  happiness  of  social  life^  have  been  too  fatally  evinced 
in  instigating  the  ignorant  and  unthinking  to  deeds  of 
bloodshed  and  horror,  under  the  false  pretext  of  being 
serviceable  to  God  and  religion.     By  these  they  have 
been  inspired  with  a  spirit  of  animosity  arrd  party  rage, 
mutually  hating  each  other  ;  hence  those  numerous  and 
destructive  wars,  on  account  of  opinions  and  religious 
ceremonies,    those   horrid    massacres    and   sanguinary 
executions  which  have  so  often  stained  the  annals  of 
ecclesiastical   history.      By  these  the  benevolent  and 
social  affections  are  blasted,  the  milk  of  human  kind- 
ness is  dried   up,  and   every  thing  that  is  worthy  and 
•^ood  in  our  nature  goes  to  decay  ;  while  the  malevolent 
and  evil   passions  are   nourished  and  gather  strength. 
Jt  is  a  matter  of  indilTerence  whether  we  pay  our  adora- 
tions to  a  Deity  the  work  of  meii's  haiids,  or  the  crea- 
ture;  of  their    iimcy  ;  provided  such   worshi})  tends  to 
daikcM   our  tiTulerstanding,  enslave  our  minds,    engen- 
der animosity,    render  men    implaca!)l(s    and   outrage 
humanity.      YV'liile  the  priests  claim  for  themselves  the 
best  ol  the  corn,  the;   \v\ne,  and  the  oil,  as  th(^  gill  of 
their  (jrod,  n  tenth   of  the  produci- of  cultivatiil  nature 
by  jjivine    ri^ht,    ;ind    the  (•o'n.'4((]Uent    slavery   of   the 
industrious  part  of  mankind. 


'20  THE  GOD  OF  THE  JEWS; 

To  investigate  the  character,  and  clear  up  the  pre- 
tensions of  this  Deity  to  divine  worsliip  ;  to  expose 
the  absurdity  and  nuUity  of   such   pretensions,   and 
point  out  tlie  pernicious   effects  of  imitating  his  con- 
duct, or  regulating  our  actions  by  his  pretended  law, 
shall  be  the  business  of  this  essay  ;  and  this  solely 
from  what  is  called  his  own  word.     This,  however,  is 
a  task  of  no  small  difficulty,  considering  the  disjointed 
manner  in  which  it  has  come  down  to  us ;  "  his  ways 
are  not  as  our  ways,''  so  neither  are  his  writings :  we 
must,  therefore,  rest  contented  to  wander  through  this 
holy  chaos,  and  gather  up  the  scattered  fragments  in 
the  best  manner  we  can. 

To  estimate  the  characters  of  mankind  it  is  necessary 
to  compare  men  with  each  other.     But  to  what  standard 
shall  we  appeal  to  estimate  the  character  of  fictitious 
beings,  who  exist  no  where  but  in  the  imagination  of 
credulity  ?     I  know  of  none,  unless  we  are  to  judge  of 
them  by  their  approximation  to  human  perfection  or 
imperfection.     This  Divinity  says,  he  "  made  man  in 
his  own  image,"  which,  if  he  did  not,  then  has  man 
created  him  in  his,  and   that,  not  one  of  the  most  ra- 
tional and  virtuous  part  of  the  species.      Which  of 
these  is  the  case,  it  matters  not ;  the  relation   is  the 
same  either  way,  and   we  are  equally  entitled  to  the 
right  of  investigating  his  character. 

No  character  is  so  detestable  among  mankind  as  that 
of  a  cruel  tyrant :  at  such  a  disposition  every  sensa- 
tion revolts,  and  all  our  feelings  stand  appalled  ;  yet 
do  cruelty  and  inhumanity  stand  forward  as  the  most 
prominent  features  in  the  character  of  this  Deity. 

The  "  Lord  of  Hosts,''  or  the  "  God  of  Battles,"  is 
one  of  his  favourite  appellations  among  the  Jews;  he 
is  always  represented  as  assisting  at  their  encounters, 
giving  out  the  most  bloody  and  vindictive  orders,  and 
as  being  delighted  with  carnage  and  massacre.  The 
greatest  blessings  he  usually  promises  are  those  of  vic- 
tory ;  and  the  greatest  of  evils  he  threatens  that  of 
being  vanquished.     All  his  saints  partake  of  the  same 


OR,  JKHOVAH  UNVEILED.  21 

temper,  and  the  chief  of  them,  who  was  "  a  man 
after  his  own  heart,"  was  a  man  of  the  most  sangui- 
nary cruelty.  A  few  examples  will  better  illustrate 
the  savage  disposition  of  this  Deity,  than  any  thing 
we  can  say. 

We  have  a  strong  example  of  his  ferocious  cruelty 
in   the    31st   chapter  of  Numbers,     where   the   Lord 
commanded  INloses  to  avenge  him  of  the  Midianites  ; 
who  selected  twelve  thousand  men  for  this  holy  enter- 
prise, with  a  priest  at  their  head.     This  consecrated 
banditti    accordingly    proceeded    on    the    expedition, 
*'  and  they  slew  all  the  males,*'    and  "  took  all  the 
women    of  ISIidian    captives,  with    their   little  ones," 
burnt  and   plundered  the  whole  country,  and  carried 
off  the  booty  to  their  camp.     Even  this,  however,  was 
not  enough  to  satiate  the  cruel  temper  of  this  incensed 
Deity ;  upon  their  arrival  in  the  camp,  "  Moses  was 
wroth    with   the   officers   of  the   host,''  because  they 
saved  all  the  women  alive.     He  therefore,  in  the  name 
of  their    God,    issued   the    atrocious  order   to  "  kill 
every  male  among  the  little  ones  (although  all  the  males 
were  killed  before,  verse  7th)  and  kill  every  woman 
that  hath  known  man  by  lying  with   him  ;"  but  the 
maids  they  might  retain  for  themselves,  although  it 
was  on  their  account  that  the  war  commenced,  verse 
16.     The   girls,   with   the   other   plunder,    die    Lord 
ordered  to   be  divided,  according  to  his  own  holy  law 
of  robbing,  in   a  way  suitable  to  the  character  of  the 
expedition.     Taking  care,  however,   to  retain  his  share 
of  the  different  articles,  no  less  than  ninety-six  young 
wenches  being  his  dividend  of  the  maids.     Here  the 
elucidation  of  our  priests  is  wanted  to  inform  us  whe- 
tlur  the  Lord  kept  them  for  his  own  use,  or  lent  them 
to  his  priests  ?     Or  if  it  was  for  amorous  purposes,  or 
that  of  celibacy,  they   wctc  ordered   to  be  kept  aliv(^? 
No  person  is  capable  of  reading  this   chapter,   without 
being  inspired  with  sentiments  of  the  deepest  horror  at 
such  al)on»inable  cruelty  ;   no  history  can  furnish  a  j)a- 
rallel  by  the  greatest  tyrant  that  ever  hved.      How- 


'22  THE  COD  OF  THE  JEWS  ; 

over,   it  is  what  a  Christian  Bishop  calls  "  good  pohcy 
coinl)incd  with  iuc?rcy  '/' 

"  The  tender  mercies  o^"  the  wicked  are  cruelty," 
those  of  the  Lord  are  little  better:  "  he  smote  Egypt 
in  his  first  born,  for  his  mercy  endureth  for  ever;  and 
drowned  Pharaoh  in  the  Red  Sea,  for  his  mercy  en- 
dureth for  ever ;"  or,  as  it  is  made  to  rhyme  in  some 
Versions  of  the  Psalms, 

**  To  hnn  great  kinj^s  who  overthrew. 

For  he  hath  mercy  ever ; 
Yea,  famous  kings  in  battle  slew. 

For  his  grace  faileth  never." 

Psalm  cxxxvi. 

That  "  he  who  hath  the  hearts  of  all  men  in  his^ 
hand''  should  manifest  mercy  and  grace,  by  murder 
and  carnage,  is  wholly  irreconcilable  to  our  feelings. 
Faith  only  can  do  this  ! 

But  who  would  expect  that,  after  all  the  males 
were  killed  (some  twice)  and  all  the  "  women  that 
had  known  man,'*  and  the  young  maidens  slaves  to 
the  Israelites,  that  these  same  Midianites  should  not 
only  exist,  but  be  able  to  subject  their  conquerors  to 
the  most  abject  slavery  for  seven  years  ?  See  Judges, 
chap.  vi.  These  are  strange  things,  if  we  had  not 
the  Lord's  word  for  them  ! 

In  the  7th  chapter  of  Deuteronomy,  the  Lord  pro- 
mises them  the  country  of  seven  nations,  greater  and 
mightier  than  themselves,  accompanied  with  the  usual 
merciful  order  of  extermination  and  cruelty :  "  And 
when  the  Lord  thy  God  shall  deliver  them  before  thee, 
thou  shalt  smite  them^  and  utterly  destroy  them  ;  thoii 
shalt  make  no  covenant  with  them,  nor  shew  mercy 
unto  them."  They  were  encouraged  in  the  execution 
of  these  righteous  commands  with  the  assurance  of 
the  Lord's  assistance,  who  is  "  a  mighty  God  and 
terrible !''  which  he  certainly  was  to  the  poor  Canaan- 
ites.  Nevertheless,  the  Lord  was  only  to  put  them 
out  by  ''  little  and   little,"  without  consuming  them 


I 


OR,  JEHOVAH  UNVEILED.  23 

at  once,  lest  tlie  beasts  of  the  field  should  increase 
upon  them  :  at  the  same  time  they  were  to  be  de- 
stroyed with  a  "  mighty  destruction,"  verse  !^3.  Such 
is  the  consistency  of  the  Lord's  orders,  that,  putting 
them  out  by  httle  and  little  was  to  be  accomplished 
by  "  saving  alive  nothing  that  broatheth,"  chap.  xx.  (>. 

These  vverc^  the  rules  of  conduct  which  the  Lord  ob- 
served towards  the  Canaanites  :  next  we  shall  see  how 
lie  intended  to  behave  to  "  those  nations  that  were 
very  far  off,''  chap.  xx.  10.  When  thou  comest  nigh 
unto  a  city  to  fight  against  it,  then  proclaim  peace 
unto  it.  And  it  .shall  be,  if  it  make  thee  answer  of 
peace,  and  open  unto  thee,  then  it  shall  be  that  all 
the  people  that  is  found  therein  shall  be  tributaries  un- 
to thee,  and  they  shall  serve  thee.  And  if  it  will 
make  no  peace  with  thee,  but  will  make  war  against 
thee,  then  thou  shalt  besiege  it.  And  when  the  Lord 
th}^  God  hath  delivered  it  into  thine  hands,  thou  shalt 
smite  every  male  thereof  with  the  edge  of  the  sword. 
But  the  women,  and  the  little  ones,  and  the  catde, 
and  all  that  is  in  the  city,  even  all  the  spoil  thereof, 
shalt  thou  take  unto  thyself:  and  thou  shalt  eat  the 
spoil  of  thine  enemies,  which  die  Lord  thy  God  hath 
given  thee.  Thus  shalt  thou  do  unto  all  the  cities 
which  are  very  far  off  from  thee."  This  declaration 
may  be  considered  as  the  Jewish  God's  law  of  nations, 
an  example  of  which  we  have  reduced  to  practice, 
Judges  xviii.  It  is  true,  none  of  our  modern  writers 
on  the  law  of  nations  have  adopted  his  principles ; 
such  cojiduct  is  only  ])ractised  by  a  few  royal  and  im- 
j)erial  banditti.  I  doubt  not  but  i>riests  may  declare 
these  orders  to  be  "  the  tender  mercies  of  the  Lord  ;'' 
but,  in  my  Oj)inion,  happy  were  those  people  who 
were  "  very  far  oil"  from  sucli  a  God,  and  such 
neighbours. 

It  is  disgusting  to  humanity  to  select  any  more  of 
the  sanguinary,  rxterminating  conunands  of  tliis  Divi- 
nity, ^\hi(:h  his  ciuiscn  pcopit'  |Mit  in  execution  to  the 
tuUcst  extent.     Joshua  linished  the  work  of  carnage 


21  TIIK  COD  OF  THE  .1KWS; 

Avliirh  Moses  Ucgm\  ;  his  l)ook  contains  little  else  than 
n  rceital  of"  shockinp^  l)arl>arities,  at  which  human  na- 
ture revolts  ;  and,  to  increase  the  horror  we  must  feel 
at  the  recital  of  these  scenes,  they  are  all  said  to  be 
done  at  the  express  command  of  God. 

We  must  not  here  forget  the  inhuman  barbarity 
exercised  upon  old  Aaron  by  the  Lord's  orders.  The 
poor  old  priest,  notwithstanding  his  faults,  was  treated 
with  uncommon  severity.  It  appears  from  Deut.  x.  6, 
that  Aaron  died,  and  was  buried  at  Mosera,  which  we 
find,  Numb,  xxxiii.  30,  was  seven  stages  from  Mount 
Hor ;  and  might,  for  ought  we  know,  take  as  many 
years  to  accomplish  the  journey.  At  Mount  Hor,  how- 
ever, Aaron  was  ordered  to  die  a  second  time,  and  was 
carried  up  to  the  top  of  the  Mount  by  his  brother 
Moses  and  his  son  Eleazer,  there  stripped  of  his  sacred 
costume,  where  he  died.  But  we  do  not  read  of  the 
two  worthies  putting  themselves  to  the  trouble  of  bury- 
ing the  old  priest  a  second  time.  We  rather  suspect 
that  our  modern  priests  would  not  be  very  fond  of 
giving  up  the  ghost  on  the  top  of  the  hills,  even  at 
the  command  of  the  Lord;  it  is  likely  they  would 
rather  choose  to  die  in  their  beds,  experiencing  the  kind 
attention  of  their  friends  and  relatives.  This  conduct 
of  the  Lord  to  Aaron  forms  a  striking  contrast  to  the 
care  and  attention  bestowed  on  his  old  horses  by  the 
benevolent  Howard.  We  are  at  a  loss  to  conceive 
why  none  of  our  theologians  nor  commentators  have 
brought  this  story  forward  as  a  proof  of  the  resur- 
rection ;  a  dogma  which  stands  greatly  in  want  of 
examples  to  support  it.  We  expect  their  thanks  for 
this  hint. 

Time,  which  mollifies  the  most  obdurate  and  inflexi- 
ble vengeance,  had  no  effect  upon  the  temper  of  this 
implacable  Deity.  He  who  can  "  visit  the  iniquity 
of  the  fathers  upon  the  children,  to  the  third  and 
fourth  generation,"  may  as  well  do  it  to  the  fortieth  or 
fiftieth.  Accordingly,  we  find  Saul  receiving  orders  to 
destroy  Amalek  for  what  was  conceived  to  be  a  crime 


OR,  JEHOVAH  UNVEH.ED.  25 

in  their  ancestors,  viz.  repelling  the  attacks  of  the  Is- 
raehtes,    Numb.  xiv.    43,   four  hundred  years   ago ; 
and  for  which  the  Lord  was  to  have  war  with  Amalek 
from  generation  to  generation/'  Lev.  xvii.  16,     "  Now 
go  and  smite  Amalek,  and  utterly  destroy  all  that  they 
have,  and   spare  them  not,  but  slay  both    man   and 
woman,  infant  and  suckling,  ox  and  sheep,  camel  and 
ass,"   I.Sam.  XV,  3.     Human  language  is  not  adequate 
to  the  task  of  expressing,    with  sufficient  detestation, 
our   abhorrence   of  these  commands ;  it  must  be  left 
to  the  silent  feelings  of  the  heart.     Saul  executed  his 
instructions  in  such  a  manner,  as  one  should  think  was 
enough  to  satisfy  the  vengeance  of  the  most  vindictive 
tyrant  that  ever  history  held  up  to  universal  execration. 
But   no !  Saul  saved  "  the  best  of  the  sheep,  and  of 
the  oxen,  and  of  the  fatlings,  and  of  the  Iambs,"  and 
spared  the  life  of  king  Agag,   for  which  solitary  act 
of  humanity     "  it   repented  the   Lord   that  he   had 
"  made  him  king  ;"  and  he  took  his  spirit  from   him, 
and  sent  an  evil  one  in  its  place,  chap.  xvi.  14-.     If 
to  the  murder  of  Agag   we  add  that  of  all  those  other 
kings  who  were  previously  killed  by  the  Lord's  orders, 
nobody  can  hesitate  in  declaring  him  to  be  the  greatest 
regicide  the  world  ever  heard  of. 

Notwithstanding  Saul  "  utterly  destroyed  all  the 
people  with  the  edge  of  the  sword,"  they  were  soon 
as  strong  and  powerful  as  ever.  We  find  them,  at 
the  time  of  Saul's  death,  strong  enough  to  take  Ziklag  ; 
but  not  according  to  the  Lord's  rules  of  war,  or  in  the 
way  his  people  take  cities,'  for,  "  they   slew  not  any. 


'  What  is  called  the  cause  f»f  Cod,  has  always  been  dislinfj^uished 
by  pfTuJiar  enormities.  '*  Whin  fht;  Christians  took  .lenisaleni  in 
the  year  lOiW,  every  person  within  it,  Christians  excepted,  wen-  put 
to  the  sword,  in  aniJLssarre  that  lasted  scvend  days,  without  distincti<m 
of  aj:;-e  or  sex.  And  some  Christians,  whom  the  Musschntn  had  al- 
lowed to  live  in  the  eitv,  conducted  the  contpierors  into  raves  and 
lurking  places,  where  the  mothers  conceale<l  themselves  and  their 
«  children;  so  that  nothinjij  escaped  their  fury."     Now  for  the  conduct 

D 


20  THE  r.OD  OF  THE  JEWS; 

either  great  or  small,  but  carried  them  away,  and 
went  on  their  way,"  1  Sam.  xxx.  ^0.  If"  the  "  Lord's 
u  ays  were  as  our  ways,"  we  should  not  be  easily  recon- 
ciled to  this  story.  To  think  of  a  whole  people  being 
utterly  destroyed,  and  in  a  few  years  afterwards  being 
cajxible  of  making  inroads  into  the  country  of  their 
destroyers,  must  give  us  pause:  but  faith  can  do  every 
thing ;  so  by  the  help  of  it  we  can  swallow  this 
absurd  tale. 

Every  one  who  reads  the  Bible  will  be  abundantly 
convinced,  that  many  more  similar  examples  of  the 
cruel,  blood-thirsty  temper  of  this  Deity  might  have 
been  produced ;  but  the  foregoing  may  well  suffice. 
From  this  prolific  source  of  mischief  has  issued  innu- 
merable wars  and  massacres,  crusades  and  expeditions 
of  plunder  and  devastation.  The  Jewish  history,  and 
that  of  the  Christian  religion,  too  plainly  bespeak  its 
baneful  influence.  See  also  these  atrocious  proceed- 
ings faithfully  copied  by  the  Spaniards  in  their  con- 
quest of  America.  And  was  not  the  extermination 
of  a  great  people  one  of  the  objects  of  the  late  coali- 
tion of  despots  against  freedom  ?  It  is  time  to  drop  a 
subject  at  which  humanity  sickens. 

The  13th  chapter  of  Deuteronomy  may  well  be 
considered  as  the  Magna  Charta  of  inquisitors. 
There  the  service  of  other  gods,  or,  which  is  the  same 


of  infidels : — "  When  Saladin  arrived  at  the  gates  of  Jerusalem  in 
1187,  which  was  no  longer  defensible,  he  granted  to  Lusignan's 
Queen  a  capitulation  that  far  exceeded  her  hope  ;  an(-  -erniitted  her 
to  retire  whithersoever  she  pleased  to  go.  He  exa(!t^!i  no  ransom 
from  the  Greeks  that  lived  in  the  city,  and  but  a  very  moderate  one 
from  the  Latins.  AVhen  he  made  his  entry  into  Jerusalem,  many 
women  came  and  prostrated  themselves  before  him,  begging  off  their 
husbands,  children,  or  fathers,  that  were  in  his  chains  ;  and  he  set 
them  all  at  liberty,  with  a  generosity  which  had  been  altogether  with- 
out example  in  tliat  part  of  the  world." — See  Voltaire's  History  of 
the  Crusades.  How  happy  is  it  for  mankind  to  fall  under  the  domi- 
nion of  those  who  have  "  tiie  ferocity  of  their  nature  tempered  by 
the  benignity  of  the  Christian  religion  !"  Had  the  Anialekites  or 
Saladin  been  engaged  in  the  Lord's  cause,  they  had  acted  differently. 

f 


OR,  JEHOVAH  UNVEILED.  27 

thing,  non-conformity  to  the  estabhshed  creed,  was  a 
crime  for  which  they  were  to  suffer  a  capital  punish- 
ment. Freedom  of  inquiry  was  entirely  prohil)ited ; 
our  dearest  friends  and  relatives  were  to  be  sacrificed, 
without  pity,  and  without  remorse,  at  the  altar  of  this 
intolerant  Deity,  if  they  should  entice  us  (by  argu- 
ments or  otherwise)  to  serve  other  gods,  of  whatever 
country  or  kind,  they  were  surely  to  be  put  to  death. 
Not  only  were  men  to  suffer  for  their  own  opinions, 
but  whole  cities  were  to  be  "  utterly  dcstroyed^^  for 
the  opinions  of  "  certain  men.^'  It  is  a  thing  unques- 
tionably clear  and  evident,  that  truth  requires  not  to 
be  supported  by  force,  fraud,  and  injustice.  When 
we  see  the  Lord's  cause  upheld  by  persecution  and 
cruelty,  we  cannot  be  in  suspense  a  moment  concern- 
ing it :  truth  makes  its  way  to  the  human  heart  by  its 
own  native  energy,  while  fraud  and  imposture  only 
want  the  assistance  of  fire  and  faggot.  Who  doth  not 
see,  in  this  chapter,  the  root  whence  hath  sprung  those 
innumerable  and  diabolical  persecutions  which  have  so 
often  disgraced  the  history  of  Christianity  }  Here  the 
features  of  the  holy  office  are  well  delineated,  as  prac- 
tised in  those  godly  and  Catholic  countries,  Spain  and 
Portugal.  In  the  17th  chapter  we  come  to  the  very 
climax  of  inicphty,  where  mere  indifference  is  made  a 
capital  crime,  as  those  "  that  will  not  hearken  unto 
the  priest  (that  standeth  there  to  minister  before  the 
Lortl  thy  God)  or  unto  the  judge,  even  that  man  shall 
die." 

Merciful  and  humane  God  !  It  is  true,  we  do  not 
read  of  any  of  these  inhuman  laws  being  put  in  exe- 
cution until  the  time  of  the  kings,  notwithstanding  their 
frequent  relapses  into  idolatry.  This  may  be  owing 
to  their  stiff-neckedness.  Under  the  rei^al  government 
the  toleration  of  opinions,  or  th(,'Worsiii|)  of  other  gods, 
was  the  prin(.ii)al  sin  lor  which  the  J^ord  was  con- 
tinually denouncing  JMtlgnunts  on  the  people,  both  of 
Israel  and  .ludah.  Those  kinc^s  who  were  weak 
euon.gli  to   turn  persecutors  at  the   instigation   of  the 


^  THE  GOD  OF  THE  JEWS; 

priests  and  prophets,  were  sure  of  being  extolled  to 
the  skies,  as  "  doing  that  which  was  right  in  the  eyes 
of  the  Lord :"  while,  ou  the  contrary,  those  who  gave 
any  countenance  to  religious  freedom  were  continually 
"provoking  the  Lord  to  anger;"  and  such  of  the 
people  as  declined  seeking  him,  "  should  be  put  to 
death,  whether  small  or  great,  man  or  woman,'* 
SChron.  xv.  13.  The  prophets,  meanwhile,  doing 
every  thing  in  their  power  to  instigate  the  people  to 
acts  of  atrocity,  auto  defes  were  celebrated  whenever 
the  power  or  opportunity  occurred  ;  and  Baal's  priests 
were  frequently  immolated  at  the  shrine  of  the  impla- 
cable Jehovah.  See  1  Kings  xviii.  40.  The  non-con- 
formity to  the  Judaical  rites  appears  to  be  the  only 
crime  for  which  the  Lord  brought  such  mischief  on 
the  people  of  Israel,  and  stirred  up  so  many  traitors 
and  rebels  to  the  government ;  all  of  whom,  however, 
on  getting  into  power,  proved  as  bad  as  their 
predecessors. 

Justice  comprises  the  sum  total  of  every  moral  qua- 
lity ;  those,  therefore,  who  ascribe  moral  perfections  to 
this  Being,  must  be  sadly  put  to  it  to  defend  the  cha- 
racter which  he  has  given  of  himself  in  his  word.  His 
priests  have  declared  him  to  be  a  God  of  "  infinite 
justice  ;"  what  they  mean  by  the  expression  I  will  not 
pretend  to  say  ;  but  if  any  thing  like  justice  can  be  ~ 
discovered  in  those  actions  and  commands  of  his  which 
we  shall  select,  then  are  all  our  common  notions  of 
justice  vague  and  delusive,  and  there  remains  not  the 
slightest  analogy  between  that  of  God  and  man.  If 
we  turn  to  Genesis  xii.  14,  we  have  there  an  account 
of  Abram's  practising  a  gross  fraud  upon  Pharaoh, 
offering  to  play  the  pimp  in  the  debauchery  of  his 
own  wife  ;  and  a  similar  one  on  Abimelech,  chap.  x. 
In  both  instances,  the  Lord  rewarded  the  deceitful, 
lying  patriarch,  and  punished  the  deceived  and  credu- 
lous kings,  as  a  proof  of  his  infinite  justice ! 

Another  example  of  his  justice  we  have  in  chap, 
xvii.  14.     "  And  the  uncircumcised  man  child,  whose 


OR,  JEHOVAH  UNVEILED.  29 

flesh  of  his  foreskin  is  not  circumcised,  that  soul  shall 
be  cut  off'  from  his  people."  To  command  infants  to 
be  murdered  for  what  they  could  not  perform,  and  a 
thing  in  itself  of  no  consequence,  may  be  divine  jus- 
tice, as  it  resembles  nothing  human  !  Could  anything 
be  more  horridly  unjust  than  to  bring  such  havoc  and 
devastation  on  the  people  of  Egypt  for  what  was  only 
the  fault  of  the  king  ?  But  how  much  more  so,  when 
it  was  not  the  king's  fault,  but  the  Lord's  own  ?  He 
continually  hardened  the  heart  of  Pharaoh  not  to  let 
the  people  go,  Exod.  iv.  21,  vii.  3,  ix.  12,  and  as 
often  punished  him  for  keeping  them  still;  he  likewise 
hardened  the  hearts  of  the  Canaanites,  "  that  they 
should  come  against  Israel  in  battle,  that  he  might  de- 
stroy them  utterly/*  Josh.  xi.  20.  Is  not  this  con- 
duct like  that  of  those  tyrants  who  secretly  foment 
disturbances  among  their  subjects,  that  they  may  have 
a  pretext  for  putting  them  under  military  execution 
and  confiscating  their  property  ?  Are  we  to  consider 
the  command,  chap.  iii.  22,  to  borrow  the  Egyptian 
property,  without  any  intention  of  restoring  it,  as  A 
proof  of  his  justice  and  equity  ?  This  conduct  is,  in- 
deed, conformable  to  one  of  his  fundamental  maxims 
of  justice,  viz.  "  visiting  the  iniquities  of  the  fathers 
u|)on  the  children,  to  the  third  and  fourth  generation,*' 
chap.  XX.  5,  which  righteous  and  equitable  maxim  was 
applied  to  Korah  and  his  family.  Num.  xvi.  32  ;  to 
that  of  Achan,  Josh.  vii.  25  ;  and  to  the  descendants 
of  Saul,  2  Sam.  xxi. 

These  are,  however,  but  trifling  instances ;  if  we 
turn  to  1  Sam.  vi.  wc  shall  there  sec  a  splendid  exam- 
ple of  divine  justice.  Upon  the  Philistines  sending 
back  the  ark,  "  Thoy  of  JJeth-shemcsh  were  reaping 
their  wheat  harvest  in  the  valley,  and  thc^  lifted  u]} 
their  eyes  and  saw  the  ark,  and  rejoiced  to  flee  it." 
But  iiotvvitlist;HKliii^-  their  joy,  and  their  offering  a 
sacrifice  unto  the  Lord,  "  he  smote  tiie  men  of  IJi'-th- 
sheiuesh,  luraust'  they  imd  looked  into  iIk;  ark  of  the 
Lord  ;  uvea  he  biuulc  of  the  ])eople  lilty  thousand  and 


■so  TflE  COD  OF  THE  JEWS; 

threescore  and  ten  men.'^  A  good  round  number  of 
reapers  in  one  valley  !  Pretty  work  this  for  looking 
into  an  old  chest !  IJow  admirably  is  the  punishment 
suited  to  the  nature  and  dc^gree  of  the  offence  ?  This 
unlucky  ark  brought  a  clown  to  his  grave,  for  doing 
what  one  would  think  was  a  dutv  instead  of  a  sin. 
"  And  when  they  came  to  Nachan's  threshing-floor, 
Uzzah  put  forth  his  hand  to  the  ark  of  God,  and  took 
hold  of  it,  for  the  oxen  shook  it :  And  the  anger  of 
the  Lord  was  kindled  against  Uzzah,  and  God  smote 
him  there  for  his  error  ;  and  there  he  died  by  the  ark 
of  God."  I  do  not  think  many  people  would  be  in- 
clined to  keep  it  from  falling  in  the  dirt,  after  hearing 
of  this  righteous  dispensation.  The  Lord  might  have 
recollected  the  maxim,  "  to  err  is  human  ;  to  forgive 
is  divine." 

We  have  many  more  luminous  examples  of  his  jus- 
tice ;  among  which  is  that  shining  one,  2  Sam.  xxiv. 
26,  where  "  there  died  of  the  people,  from  Dan  even 
to  Beersheba,  seventy  thousand  men."     And  for  what 
were  they  killed  ?    Why,  because  David  took  it  into 
his  head  to  count  how  many  were  of  them  ;  the  only 
unexceptionable  act  of  his  life,  and  a  thing  in  itself 
both  just  and  necessary,  and  what  had  been  done  by 
his  own  orders  formerly.  See  Num.  i.  2.     How  the 
Lord  behaved  to  his  own  people,  even  when  he  could 
find  no  fault  with  them,  may  be  seen  in  the  xlivth 
Psalm,  verse  10.  "  Thou  makest  us  turn  back  from 
the  enemy :  and  they  that  hate  us  spoil  for  themselves. 
Thou  hast  given  us  like  sheep  appointed  for  meat : 
and  hast  scattered  us  among  the  heathen.     Thou  sell- 
cst  thy  people  for  nought,  and  doest  not  increase  thy 
wealth  by  their  price.     Thou  makest  us  a  reproach  to 
our  neighbours,  a  scorn  and  derision  to  them  that  are 
round  about  us.      Thou  makest  us  a  by-word  among 
the  heathen :  a  shaking  of  the  head  among  the  peo- 
ple.    My  confusion  is  continually  before  me,   and  the 
shame  of  my  face  hath  covered  me.     I'or  the  voice  of 
him  that  reproacheth  and  blasphemeth,  by  reason  of 


OR,  JEHOVAH  UNVEILED.  Stl 

tlie  enemy  and  avenger.  All  this  is  come  upon  U3  ; 
yet  have  we  not  forgotten  thee,  neither  have  we  dealt 
falsely  in  thy  covenant.  Our  heart  is  not  turned 
back,  neither  have  our  steps  declined  from  thy  way." 

What  shameful  conduct  was  it  for  the  Lord  to  de- 
liver over  his  servant  Job  into  the  hands  of  Satan,  for 
him  to  work  his  mischievous  pranks  upon.  The 
Lord  says  of  Job,  "  there  is  none  like  him  in  the 
earth,  a  perfect  and  an  upright  man,  one  that  feareth 
(Jod,  and  escheweth  evil."  Job  i.  8.  Now  we  shall 
hear  what  this  perfect  and  upright  man,  who  was  his 
servant,  says  of  him.  He  tells  us  that  "  he  breaketh 
me  with  a  tempest,  and  multiplieth  my  wounds  with- 
out a  cause.  He  will  not  suffer  me  to  take  my 
breath,  but  filleth  me  with  bitterness.^'  He  is  as  des- 
titute of  humanity  as  he  is  of  justice.  For  "  if  the 
scourge  slay  suddenly,  he  will  laugh  at  the  trial  of  the 
innocent."  Neither  are  there  any  means  of  bringing 
him  to  a  sense  of  justice  or  equity,  says  Job,  "  he  is 
not  a  man  as  1  am,  that  I  should  answer  him,  and  we 
should  come  together  in  judgment.  Neither  is  there 
any  day's  man  betwixt  us,  that  might  lay  his  hand 
upon  us  both."  Chap.  ix.  So  for  is  the  Lord  from 
administering  impartial  justice,  that  "  the  just  upright 
man  is  laughed  to  scorn.  The  tabernacles  of  robbers 
prosper,  and  they  that  provoke  God  are  secure ;  into 
whose  hand  Cod  bringeth  abundantly."  Chap.  xii. 

This  was  the  way  lie  served  his  friends;  how  he 
treated  his  enemies  we  have  seen  elsewhere.  It  is  by 
such  actions  as  these  that  we  denominate  this  being,  a 
Cod  of  infinite  justice! 

W^here  we  do  not  find  justice  we  cannot  expect 
veracity.'  The  Jewish  ]3eity  has  been  pompously  d<;- 
clared  to  be  the  "  Cod  of  truth  ;"  he  says  of  himself, 
that  "  Ik;  is  not  a  man  that  he  should  lie,"  Num. 
xxiii.  If),  yet  we  shall  hud,  in  the  sc(|U(l,  that  he  will 
both  lie  himselt",  and  instruct  oth«;r  pcoj)Ic  to  do  the 
same.  We  find  him  threatening  Adam  with  imme- 
diate death  if  he  eat  of  the  tree  of  knowledge,  (which, 


52  THE  GOD  OF  THE  JEW  S' ; 

I)V  the  byo,  is  a  tree  that  cvorv  one  should  oat  of, ) 
Gen.  ii.  17.    "  In  tiie  day   thou  eatest  thereof,  thou 
shall   surely   die;"   yet  he  lived   nine  hundred  and 
thirty  years.     He  made  a  covenant  with  Abram,  chap, 
XV.  18,  in  ■which  he  promised  his  seed  the  whole  coun- 
try from  the  Nile  to  the  Euphrates  !     But,  need  any 
one  he  told  they  never  had  the  half  of  it .''    In  an- 
other bargain  which  he  made  with  the  same  patriarch, 
chap,  xvii,  8,  "  they  were  to  have  it  for  an  everlasting- 
possession.'*     Yet  where  is  the  country  that  has  so 
often  changed  masters,  or  ever  held  their  independence 
by  a  more  slippery  tenure  ?    He  appeared  to  Jacob, 
chap.  xlvi.  4,  and  directed  him  to  go  down  into  Egypt, 
saying,  "  I  will  surely  bring  thee  up  again  ;'*  this  he 
never  performed.     He  appeared  also  to  Moses  in  the 
land  of  Midian,  and  instructed  him  to  go  to  Pharaoh 
with  a  lie  in  his  mouth,  "  And  now  let  us  go  (we  be- 
seech thee)  three  days  journey  into  the  wilderness, 
that  we  may  sacrifice  to  the  Lord  our  God."  Exod. 
iii.  18.     This  was  a  most  senseless  falsehood  which  he 
ordered  to  be  told.     What  occasion  could  there  be  for 
fraud  and  deceit,  when  he  intended  to  harden   Pha- 
raoh's heart  against  it,  and  to  bring  them  up  "  by- 
mighty  wonders  and  a  strong  hand  ?"    If  he  intended 
to  do  that,  one  would  think  this  piece  of  duplicity 
superfluous  ;  yet  we  find  the  injunction  again  repeated, 
chap.  vii.  16. 

He  instructed  the  Israelites  (under  the  same  fraudu- 
lent pretext,  no  doubt,  of  sacrificing  in  the  wilderness), 
to  borrow  of  the  Egyptians,  "  jewels  of  silver,  and 
jewels  of  gold,"  chap.  xi.  2.  This  advice  they  put  in 
practice  with  great  success,  "  so  that  they  lent  them 
such  things  as  they  required ;  and  they  spoiled  the 
Egyptians."  It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  the  Lord's 
chosen  people  would  be  very  scrupulous  about  obtain- 
ing the  consent  of  the  owners  to  any  thing  they  had  a 
fancy  for.  Perhaps  the  Lord  had  his  share  in  what 
tliey  got  by  fraud,  as  well  as  in  what  they  took  by 
force.  See  Num.  xxxi.  37.     The  regard  which  this- 


OR,  JEHOVAH  UNVEILED.  83 

Deity  bad  to  his  oath,  was  no  better  than  what  he  paid 
to  his  word,  for  we  find  upon  some  discontents  pre- 
vaihng  in  the  Israehtish  camp,  Num.  xiv.  30,  occa- 
sioned by  the  disagreeable  accounts  of  the  spies,  that 
he  told  them  he  would  not  perform  that  which  he  had 
sworn  to  do :  "  Doubtless  ye  shall  not  come  into  the 
land  concerning  which  I  sware,  to  make  you  dwell 
therein  ;"  and  in  the  34th  verse  he  tells  them,  "  ye 
shall  know  my  breach  of  promise."  Nobody,  indeed^ 
places  much  dependence  upon  what  people  swear  in  a 
passion  ;  and  the  Jewish  God  very  often  swore  in 
wrath.  See  Deut.  i.  34.  Psalm  cxv.  1 1. 

We  find  him  grossly  deceiving  the  Israelites,  in  the 
quarrel  that  took  place  between  them  and  the  Benja- 
mites,  concerning  their  ill  treatment  of  the  Levite  and 
his  concubine,  who  lost  forty  thousand  men,  by 
trusting  twice  to  his  lying  oracles,  Judg.  xx.  18,  23. 
It  was  by  the  Lord^s  orders  that  Samuel  was  to  use 
the  false  pretence  of  a  sacrifice,  when  he  went  to  anoint 
David  king,  1  Sam.  xvi.  2.  It  is  no  unusual  thing 
to  cover  treason  and  rebellion  with  religion  !  Not  con- 
tent with  instructing  people  in  the  arts  of  falsehood 
and  deceit,  he  sent  an  evil  spirit  between  Abimelech 
and  the  men  of  Shechem,  and  they  dealt  treacherously 
with  Abimelech,  Judg.  ix.  23.  Sometimes  he  causes 
people  to  hearken  to  bad  advice,  "  to  the  intent  that  he 
may  bring  evil  upon  them  !'*  2  Sam.  xviii.  5  ;  1  Kings 
X.  1.5.  This  need  give  us  no  surprise  :  do  we  not  nnd 
the  prophet  Micah  representing  the  Lord  as  holding 
a  council,  and  concerting  measures  for  the  destruction 
of  Ahab  by  falsehood  and  lies?  Does  he  not  approve 
of  the  advice  of  that  spirit,  who  said,  "  and  f  will  be 
a  lying  spirit  in  the  mouth  of  all  his  prophets  ?"  which 
upright  counsel  was  immediately  followed,  '*  thou 
shalt  j)er3uade  him,  and  jinvail  also  ;  go  forth  and  do 
so,"  1  Kings  xxii.  22.  This  is  the Ix-ing  whi(!h  priests 
term  a  Ciod  of  uprii^htnessand  truth  !  Hut,  lo  evince 
in  the  strong<'st  manner,  that  there  is  no  dependence 
cither  upon  what  he  would  say  or  swear,  we  find  him 

K 


84  TIIK  con  or  TIIF,  JFWS ; 

arciisod  hy  his  own  propliets  of  falsehood  and  deceit', 
and  as  being  the  autlior  of  Hes.  Jeremiah  exclaims, 
chap.  iv.  10,  "  Ah  !  Lord  God,  surely  thou  hast 
greatly  deceived  this  people,  and  Jerusalem  ;  saying, 
ye  shall  have  peace  ;  whereas  the  sword  rcacheth  unto 
the  soul.''  And  the  prophet  Isaiah  affirms,  lie  had 
caused  "the  people  to  err  from  his  way,"  Isa.  Ixiii. 
17.  Jeremiah  again  cries  out,  in  chap.  Jiv.  18,  "  Wilt 
thou  he  altogether  unto  me  as  a  liar,  and  as  waters 
that  fail  ?"  and  in  chap.  xx.  7,  he  also  bitterly  com- 
j)1ains  of  the  deccitfulness  of  his  God  :  "  O  Lord^ 
thou  hast  deceived  me,  and  I  was  deceived  ;  thou  art 
stronger  than  1,  and  hast  prevailed :  I  am  in  derision 
daily,  every  one  mocketh  me."  It  would  seem  fVom' 
this,  that  tiiose  who  lived  at  the  time,  and  upon  the 
spot ;  those  who  had  an  opportunity  of  examining, 
had  no  such  fliith  in  the  oracles  of  this  Dfeity,  as  we 
have  in  our  time.  His  prophets  and  their  predictions 
were  as  much  objects  of  ridicule  then,  as  their  illus- 
trious successor,  Mr.  Brothers,  is  at  present.  Con- 
scious of  his  prevaricating  temper",  he  asks  the  prophet 
Ezekiel,  chap.  xii.  22,  "  Son  of  man,  what  is  that 
proverb  that  ye  have  in  the  land  of  Israel,  saying,  The 
days  are  prolonged,  and  every  vision  fails  ;  tell  them, 
therefore,  thus  saith  the  Lord  God  ;  I  will  make  this 
proverb  to  cease."  How  }  By  sticking  to  his  word 
a  little  better  than  formerly,  Avhich  he  promises  to  do 
in  the  22d  verse  :  "  There  shall  none  of  my  words  be 
prolonged  any  more  ;  but  the  word  which  I  have  spoken 
shall  be  done,  saith  the  Lord  God."  Here  the  reason 
of  the  proverb  evidently  appears  :  if  he  had  kept 
his  word  before,  he  would  not  have  occasion  to  say, 
"  None  of  my  words  shall  be  prolonged  any  more  ;" 
the  proverb  would  never  have  had  an  existence.  Ill 
chap.  xiv.  9,  he  candidly  acknowledges  that  he  is 
the  deceiver  and  not  the  prophet :  "  And  if  the  pro- 
phet be  deceived  when  he  hath  spoken  a  thing,  I  the 
iiOrd  have  deceived  that  ])rophet.'*  This  confession  is 
pretty  honest,  one  should  imagine. 


OR,  JEHOVAH  UNVEILED.  35 

It  may  not  perhaps  be  amiss,  before  we  proceed 
^rther,  to  hazard  a  few  remarks  on  the  character  and 
behaviour  ot"  the  prophets.  It  appears  evident,  from 
many  places  of  the  Bible,  that  these  gentry  used  to 
o/ficiate  as  conjurors,  quack  doctors,  and  fortune- 
tellers, for  gratuities,  upon  various  occasions.  Saul 
^nd  his  servant  consulted  together  what  present  to 
make  Samuel  for  intelligence  concerning  the  lost  asses, 
1  Sam.  ix.  7,  8,  and  finding  they  had  a  quarter  of  a 
shekel  of  silver,  or  three-pence  three  farthings,  they 
judged  it  very  handsome  acknowledgement. 

Jeroboam,  when  he  sent  his  wile  to  the  prophet 
Ahijah,  to  enquire  of  him  the  issue  of  his  son's  dis- 
temper, did  not  forget  to  send  along  with  lier  "  ten 
loaves  and  cracknels,  and  a  cruise  of  honey,''  1  Kings 
?wiv.  3,  Benhadad,  when  he  sent  to  enquire  of  Elisha, 
oil  a  similar  occasion,  also  took  care  to  send  the  pro- 
phet forty  camel  load  of  the  good  things  of  Damascus, 
to  procure  a  favourable  response,  2  Kings  viii.  9. 
And  Naximan,  when  he  came  to  be  cured  of  his  leprosy, 
brought  no  less  than  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and 
seventy-five  pounds  sterling  in  silver,  and  six  thousand 
pieces  of  gold,  with  ten  suits  of  clothes,  2  Kings  v. 
6.     No  bad  trade  prophesying  at  this  rate  ! 

W,e  learn  from  Nehemiah,  chap.  vi.  12,  13,  that 
prophets  could  be  hired  to  prophesy  any  thing  their 
employers  pleased  ;  and  the  jjrophet  Micah  assures  us, 
tjjat  "  the  j>rophets  divine  for  money,"  chap.  iii.  11. 
[I'liey  sometimes  took  it  ajniss  if  a  customer  were  to  go 
by  them  with  his  employ.  See  2  Kings  i.  2.  The  pro- 
j)hets  were  hkewise  dividcxj  into  factions  and  parties  ; 
^c  factions  of  Judah  and  Israel  used  to  proi)hesy  lies 
against  one  another ;  examples  of  which  we  have  in 
\  Kings  chap.  xiii.  and  «hap.  xxii.  and  in  2  Kings  iii. 
,\3.  Their  cruelty  is  no  h.-ys  observable  than  th(;ir 
other  qualities.  Klijah  slew  lour  hundred  and  fifty  of 
JJtiVil's  priests  atone  time,  1  Kings  xviii,  40  ;  at  another, 
two  cotnfximies  of /ifly  men  each,  ^  Kini;s  i.  10,  12. 
lj[is  ,su(;(;^!jboj ,    l:^lji>ha,  got  i'orly-two  children  torn  in 


30  THE  GOD  OF  THE  JEWS ; 

pieces,  lor  calling-  liim  bald  pate,  chap.  ii.  24;  and  a 
iiaiueless  pro|)liet  had  a  man  worried  by  a  lion,   for  not 
giving-  him  a  box  on  the  ear,   1  Kings  xx.  35.     It  was 
to  avenge  a  quarrel  of  the  prophets  that  Elisha  sent 
one  of  his  pupils  to  anoint  Jehu  king  of  Israel ;  with 
instructions    to    murder  the  whole    house  of  Ahab, 
2  Kings  ix.  6,  7-     Let  us  hear  the  malevolent  wishes  of 
the  prophet  Jeremiah  against  those  he  looked  upon  as 
his  enemies.     "  Therefore  deliver  up  their  children  to 
the  famine,  and  pour  out  their  blood  by  the  force  of 
the  sword  :  let  their  wives  be  bereaved  of  their  children 
and  be  widows,  and  let  their  men  be  put  to  death,  and 
let  their  young  men  be  slain  by  the  sword  jn  battle/' 
Jer.  xviii.  20. 

We  have  also  some  curious  specimens  of  their  pride 
and  haughtiness,  which  deserve  our  notice.  Nathan 
took  it  in  high  dudgeon  that  he  was  not  invited  to 
Adonijah's  feast,  and  complains  of  the  slight  with  great 
emphasis :  *'  for  me,  even  me,  hath  he  not  called.'' 
Elisha,  notwithstanding  the  kindness  and  hospitality 
of  the  Shunamite  Jady,  would  not  condescend  to  speak 
to  her  personally,  even  when  in  his  presence,  but  or- 
dered his  servant  to  interrogate  her,  and  return  his  an- 
swers. So  proud  and  haughty  was  this  prophet,  that 
when  Naaman,  captain  of  the  host  of  Assyria,  came 
to  his  door  in  his  chariot,  he  disdained  to  speak  to 
him,  but  sent  a  messenger  with  his  orders. 

We  have  heard  the  prophets  accusing  the  Lord  of 
Jying  and  deceit:  we  shall  now  hear  what  the  Lord 
says  of  the  prophets.  It  would  seem  that  these  inspi- 
rations of  the  prophets,  which  we  have  such  a  venera- 
tion for,  were  nothing  more  than  the  effect  of  drunken 
orgies  and  Bacchanalian  revels,  as  the  Lord  expressly 
declares,  Isaiah  xxviii.  7,  8.  "  The  priest  and  the  pro- 
phet have  erred  through  strong  drink :  they  are  swal- 
lowed up  of  wine,  they  are  out  of  the  way  through 
strong  drink ;  tiiey  err  in  vision,  they  stumble  in  judg- 
ment :  for  all  tables  are  full  of  vomit  and  filthiness,  so 
that  there  is  no  place  clean."'     It  was  the  inspirations 


OR,  JEHOVAH  UNVEILED.  STj^ 

of  Bacchus  that  gave  the  proj)hets  both  utterance  and 
impudence  ;  for  the  Lord  disclaims  all  connection  with 
them,  Jer.  xiv.  H.  "  The  prophets  prophesy  lies  in 
my  name  ;  I  sent  them  not,  neither  spake  unto  them  : 
they  prophesy  unto  you  a  false  vision  and  divination, 
and  a  thing  of  nought,  and  the  deceit  of  their  heart  :** 
upon  which  account  he  cautions  people  to  pay  no  at- 
tention to  any  thing  they  might  say,  chap,  xxiii.  16, 
21,  26.  "  Thus  saith  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  hearken 
not  unto  the  words  of  the  prophets  that  prophesy  unto 
you;  they  make  you  vain:  they  speak  a  vision  of 
their  own  heart,  and  not  out  of  the  mouth  of  the 
Lord.'*  He  says,  "  I  have  not  sent  these  prophets, 
yet  they  ran  ;  I  have  not  spoken  to  them,  yet  they 
have  prophesied."  And  again  :  "  I  have  heard  what 
the'prophets  said  that  prophesy  lies  in  my  name,  say- 
ing, I  have  dreamed,  I  have  dreamed." 

Jn  order  to  throw  as  much  light  as  possible  on  this 
trade  of  prophesying,  we  shall  produce  two  criterions 
by  which  we  are  to  judge  of  prophets  and  prophecy. 
"  If  there  arise  among  you  a  prophet,  or  a  dreamer  of 
dreams,  and  giveth  thee  a  sign  or  a  wonder,  and  the 
sign  or  the  wonder  come  to  pass  whereof  he  spake  unto 
thee,  saying,  let  us  go  after  other  gods  (which  thou  hast 
not  known),  and    let  us  serve  them :  thou  shalt  not 
hearken  unto  the  words  of  that  prophet,  or  that  dreamer 
of  dreams."     Deut.  xiii.    1,   2,   3.     Here  signs  and 
wonders  are  to  be  no  test  of  the  prophet's  divine  au- 
thority ;    it  is  the  orthodoxy  of  the  prophesy  :    but 
in  the  18th  chapter  this  test  is  reversed,  and  the  credit 
of  the  prophet  is  to  be  established  upon  the  fulfilment  of 
the  prophecy  ;  verse  21,  22.  "  And  if  thou  say  in  thine 
heart,   how  shall  we  know  the  word  which  the  Lord 
hath  not  spoken  ?     When  a  prophet  speaketh  in  the 
name  of  the  Lord,  if  the  thing  follow  not,    nor  come 
to  pass,  that   is   the   thinE^  which   the   Lord  hath  not 
epoken,    but  tin*  })rophet  hath  sj)oken  it  presumptuous- 
ly."    In  the  midst  ai'  tju^se  harmonious  (contradictions, 
it  is  no  small  consolation  to  reilect,  that  the  Lord's 


^  T!1K  COD  OF   THE  JEWS  ; 

^jmbassadoi's  make  ii  very  gent(?el  livelihood  out  of  them, 
■4fi  well  as  delight  a  number  of  vapour-fed  tools. 
IJlessed  aie  the  credulous,  for  they  believe  without 
examination  !  In  our  day  the  light  of  science  hath  so 
eclipsed  that  of  prophecy,  that  we  order  the  prophet 
to  a  mail-house,  instead  of  sending  for  him  to  court. 

AV  e  siiall  now  proceed  to  consider  a  few  of  their 
prophetical  predictions,  and  see  whether  the  event  cor- 
responded with  the  prophecy  or  not,  leaving  it  to  the 
church  to  determine,  whether  the  Lord  deceived  the 
prophets,  or  they,  erring  through  strong  drink,  spoke 
lies  in  his  name.  The  prophet  Nathan  was  sent  to 
tell  David  that  his  house  and  kingdom  should  be  es- 
tablished for  ever  before  him;  that  his  throne  should 
be  established  for  ever,  2  Sam.  xii.  16.  .This  grant  the 
Lord  confirmed  to  David  himself,  Psal.  Ixxxix.  35, 
36  :  "  Once  have  I  sworn  by  my  holiness,  that  I  will 
not  he  unto  David  :  his  seed  shall  endure  for  ever,  and 
his  throne  as  the  sun  before  me.  It  shall  be  established 
for  ever  as  the  moon,  and  as  a  faithful  witness  in 
heaven.  Selah."  Surely,  if  ever  the  Lord  meant  to 
keep  his  word  with  any  one,  it  was  witli  the  man  after 
his  own  heart,  who  was  the  model  from  which  all  fu* 
ture  monarchs  w^re  to  copy :  yet  we  find  David,  in 
this  very  Fsalmj  making  a  complaint  of  his  bad  faith: 
"  Thou  hast  made  void  the  covenant  of  thy  servant ; 
thou  hast  profaned  his  crown,  by  casting  it  to  the 
ground,"  ver.  .39. 

It  seems  other  people,  who  had  no  such  faith  in 
the  promises  of  this  Deity,  did  not  fail  to  upbraid  him 
with  them  ;  for  he  says,  verse  50,  "  How  do  L  bear 
in  my  bosom  the  reproach  of  all  the  mighty  people/' 
llehoboam,  David's  grandson,  however,  had  only 
one-sixth  of  these  promises  for  his  share.  There  ar^ 
many  examples  of  the  Lord  frittering  his  promises 
away  to  a  mere  nothing  in  the  performfince :  the  pror 
fane  may,  perhaps,  suspect  the  Lord  acts  agreeably  to 
the  Machiavelian  maxim,  that  "  princes  iTkay  safely 
break  their  wojtl  ;  for,  if  they  but  swear  to  perform 


OR,  JEHOVAH  UNVEILED.  ^ 

they  will  always  find  people  credulous  enough  to  be- 
lieve them.''  This  the  Lord  does  not  scruple  to  do. 
Accordingly  we  find  him,  in  the  prophet  Jeremiah, 
chap,  xxxiii.  17,  21,  saying,  "  David  shall  never  want 
a  man  to  sit  upon  the  throne  of  the  house  of  Israel : 
neither  shall  the  Priests,  the  Levites,  want  a  man  be- 
fore me  to  offer  burnt-oflerings,  and  to  do  sacrifice  con- 
tinually. Thus  saith  the  Lord,  if  you  can  break  my 
covenant  of  the  day,  and  the  covenant  of  the  night, 
that  there  shall  not  be  day  and  night  in  their  season : 
then  may  my  covenant  be  broken  widi  David  my  ser- 
vant, that  he  should  not  have  a  son  to  reign  upon  his 
throne.'* 

This  lying  prophecy  has  been  exposed  to  sufficient 
contempt  by  the  Prince  of  the  Jews,  Richard  Brothers, 
applying  it  to  himself:  let  the  church  and  him  dispute 
who  has  the  fairest  claim.  Neither  the  Lord  nor  the 
prophets,  however,  foresaw  the  destruction  of  the 
government  and  subjugation  of  the  country  by  the 
Ilomuns  and  other  succeeding  conquerors.  The  co- 
venant of  the  day,  and  the  covenant  of  the  niofht,  is 
rather  a  little  better  secured  than  that  with  DavidJ 
The  prophetess  Huldah  told  king  Josiah,  he  was  "  to 
be  gadiered  to  his  grave  in  peace,"  2  Kings  xxii.  20. 
This  prediction  of  dying  in  peace  was  rather  unfortu- 
nate in  the  fulfilment ;  for,  in  warring  with  the  king  of 
JV2:y)»t,  he  was  killed  at  Megiddo,  and  brought  up 
dead  to  Jerusalem,  chap,  xxiii.  30.  The  Egyptian 
monarch  proverl  a  better  prophet  of  die  Lord  than 
Ifuldah,  who  advised  him  not  to  engage  in  the  quar- 
rel, or  the  consequences  would  be  fatal  ;  which  hap- 
pene<l  accordingly.  See' 2  Chron.  xxxv.  ^0,  22.  The 
|)rophet  Jeremiah  assured  king  Zedekiah  from  the 
Lord,  that  he  should  die  in  peace  with  the  l)urnin2:s  of 
his  fathers,  the  former  kings  that  went  before  him, 
Jer.  xxxiv.  i.  However,  being  taken  away  prisoner 
l>y  the  king  ol  Hahylon,  he  saw  his  sons  and  the 
princes  of  the  land  slain  brfon^  his  eyes,  which  were 
then  put  out,  himself  put  in  chains,  and  kept  prisoner 


40  THE  GOD  OF  THE  JEWS; 

till  his  death  ;  cliap.  hi.  10,  11.  This  is  rather  an  odd 
iiianmr  of  dying  in  peace  !  !  The  rhodomantade  pro- 
})hccies  coiicerniiig  the  destruction  of  Egypt,  Isa.  xix. 
Jer.  Ixiii.  Ezek.  xxix.  when  the  rivers  were  to  be 
dried  iij),  the  fish  destroyed,  and  the  land  desolate 
without  man  or  beast,  for  forty  years,  we  leave  to  pro- 
phecy-mongers to  discover  the  fulfilment  at  their 
leisure. 

It  may,  perhaps,  be  expected,  that  we  should  say 
something  concerning  the  prophecies  rclatijig  to  the 
Messiah :  but,  as  they  are  sacred,  and  the  Jews  and 
Christians  not  being  agreed  about  them,  we  shall 
leave  them  to  dispute  the  matter  until  his  second 
coming. 

To  hold  up  a  human  character  to  general  odium,  it 
would  be  sufficient  to  enumerate  among  its  bad  quali- 
ties, a  furious,  angry,  and  revengeful  disposition  ;  yet 
though  we  find  these  to  predominate  in  the  Jewish 
Deity,  in  all  the  omnipotence  of  his  character,  we  are 
still  to  account  him  a  God,  *'  slow  to  anger,  and  of 
great  kindness  ;  whose  tender  mercies  are  above  all 
his  other  works,'*  and  one  "  whose  mercy  endureth 
for  ever.'* 

It  is  no  easy  matter  to  conceive  how  a  man,  far  less 
a  God,  could  be  provoked  at  such  silly  trifles  as  this 
God  of  the  Hebrews  often  was  ;  sometimes  for  faults, 
of  which  himself  is  the  author;  commonly  in  circum- 
stances that  would  rather  excite  sentiments  of  pity 
and  compassion  in  a  generous  mind  than  those  of  an- 
ger and  resentment.  A  few  examples  will  illustrate 
this. 

The  affair  of  the  golden  calf  put  him  in  a  terrible 
passion,  if  Moses  had  not  been  able  to  soothe  him,  by 
representing  the  indelible  stain  it  would  be  upon  his 
character  to  vent  his  anger  upon  his  own  chosen  peo- 
ple in  their  present  circumstances :  "  And  Moses  be- 
sought the  Lord  his  God,  and  said,  Lord,  why  doth 
thy  wrath  wax  hot  against  thy  people,  which  thou  hast 
brought   forth  out  of  the  land   of  Egypt,  with  great 


OR,  JEHOVAH  UNVEILED.  41 

power  and  with  a  mighty  hand  ?  Wherefore  should 
the  Egyptians  speak  and  say,  for  mischief  did  he  bring 
them  out  to  slay  them  in  the  wilderness,  and  to  con- 
sume them  from  the  face  of  the  earth  ?  Turn  from 
thy  fierce  wrath,  and  repent  of  this  evil  against  th}'- 
people.  Remember  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Israel,  thy 
servants,  to  whom  thou  swearest  by  thine ownself,  and 
saidst  unto  them,  I  will  multiply  your  seed  as  the 
stars  of  heaven,  and  all  this  land  that  I  have  spoken  of 
will  I  give  unto  your  seed,  and  they  shall  inherit  it  for 
ever,"  Exod.  xxxii.  11,  13.  These  were  the  reasons 
*'  that  the  Lord  repented  him  of  the  evil  which  he 
thought  to  do  unto  his  people."  What  this  evil 
which  the  Lord  thought  to  do  and  repented  of  was, 
we  know  not ;  but  the  evil  which  Moses  ordered,  and 
the  Levites  executed,  was  prodigiously  enormous. 

It  was  not  long  before  his  anger  was  again  greatly 
kindled.  Upon  the  peoples  murmuring  about  the 
manna,  Num.  xi.  10,  he  was  very  much  displeased. 
It  would  seem  the  people  had  no  great  stomach  for 
angels'  food,  it  was  rather  heavenly  ;  the  flesh  and  fish 
of  Egypt  suited  carnal  appetites  better,  and  was  more 
to  their  liking,  though  at  first  it  tasted  like  "  wafers 
made  with  honey,"  Exod.  xvi.  31,  it  was  but  light 
food  for  men  in  a  desert:  at  this  time  the  taste  of  it 
was  as  the  taste  of  fresh  oil.  Upon  this  occasion 
Moses  plied  the  Lord  with  a  curious  remonstrance 
upon  the  toil  of  the  government,  which  so  far  molli- 
fied him,  that  he  sent  the  people  a  month's  diet  of 
fjuails,  acconij)anied  with  the  tender  mercy  of  choking 
great  numbers  of  them. 

Shortly  aft<T  this  he  received  another  provocation. 
The  j)(!Opl(;  fell  a  murmining  against  Moses  and  Aaron, 
upon  hearing  the  dis;i;;reeable  accounts  of  the  s|)ics, 
Num.  xiv.  1.  This  cost  Moses  an  oration  similar  to 
that  of  the  golden  calf  afl'air  ;  and  "  the  Lord  said,  I 
have  pardoned  according  to  thy  word  ;"  so  that  storm 
blew  over. 

He  next  took  a  very   odd  whim  :   Balaam,   the  pro- 

F 


42  TUE  COD  OF  THE  JKWS; 

plict,  having  often  been  tcazed  by  Balak  to  go  and 
cnrse  Isratl,  constinitly  refused,  unless  he  should  be  at 
liberty  to  speak  what  the  Lord  should  dictate,  chap, 
xxii.  18.  "  If  lialak  would  give  me  his  house  full 
of  silver  or  gold,  I  cannot  go  beyond  the  wortl  of  the 
Lord  mv  (jod,  to  do  less  or  more."  This  in^jenuous 
declaration  induced  the  Lord  to  order  IJalaam  to  Gfo 
Mith  the  men,  if  they  should  call  him  ;  but  behold  the 
caprice  of  this  Deity  !  verse  i^l  :  "  And  Balaam  rose 
up  in  the  morning,  and  saddled  his  ass.  And  God's 
anger  was  kindled  because  he  went ;  and  the  angel  of 
the  Lord  stood  in  the  way  for  an  adversary  against 
him."  How  is  it  possible  to  please  a  God  like  this, 
who  can  be  angry  in  the  morning  at  what  he  himself 
ordered  over-night?  Vv^e  could  not  expect  such 
conduct  in  the  ass  on  which  the  prophet  rode. 

Lie  broke  out  in  a  terril)le  passion,  which  produced 
most  tragical  consequences  in  the  matter  of  Baal-peor. 
Who  would  think  that  a  man  of  Israel,  having  an 
amour  with  a  Midianitish  girl,  could  ever  be  the  occa- 
sion of  such  horrid  butchery,  when  Moses  himself  was 
married  to  a  JNlidianite,  and  a  people  from  whom  they 
had  received  many  favours  ?  Yet  for  all  this,  "  the 
Lord  said  unto  Moses,  take  all  the  heads  of  the  peo- 
ple, and  hang  them  up  before  the  Lord  against  the  sun, 
that  the  fierce  anger  of  the  Lord  may  be  turned  away 
from  Israel.  A  nd  those  that  died  of  the  plague  were 
twenty-four  thousand  men,"  chap.  xxv.  4,  9.  This 
was  rather  a  severe  fit  of  anger  !  That  they  might 
know  what  risk  they  ran  in  case  of  misbehaviour,  we 
have  a  long  chapter  full  of  curses  and  imprecations 
which  the  Lord  denounces  against  those  who  vex  him. 
He  concludes  in  the  true  Hibernian  style:  "  And  the 
Lord  shall  bring  thee  into  Egypt  again  with  ships,  by 
the  way  whereof  I  spake  unto  thoe,  thou  shalt  see  it 
no  more  again  :  and  there  ye  shall  be  sold  for  bond- 
men and  bondwomen  unto  your  enemies,  and  no  man 
shall  buy  you,"  Dent,  xxviii.  68.  To  be  sold  with- 
out being  bought,   is  somewhat  dark,   unless  we  are  to 


OR,  JI-HOVAH  UNVEILED.  43 

understand  it  as  being  mortgaged  to  some  of  his  cre- 
ditors.   See  Isa.  1.  1. 

In  the  time  of  the  Judges,  his  anger  was  also  liot 
against  his  people,  "  and  he  sold  them  into  the  hands 
of  those  that  spoiled  them,'^  Judges  ii.  24-,  :5S.  Jle 
grew  more  outrageous  and  capricious  during  the  mo- 
narchy: "  And  again  the  anger  of  the  Lord  was 
kindled  against  Israel,  and  he  moved  David  against 
them,  to  say,  go  number  Israel  and  Judah."  2  Sam. 
xxiv.  1.  We  are  not  told  what  provocation  he  had  re- 
ceived, but  be  whai  it  would,  it  was  fatal  to  the  poor 
Israelites,  for  he  sent  an  angel,  who  smote  seventy 
thousand  of  them.  Human  sagacity  is  not  able  to 
conceive  why  such  a  vast  number  of  jjcople  should  be 
killed,  because  they  had  the  misfortune  to  be  num- 
bered. We  are  as  much  at  a  loss  to  perceive  the  sin 
of  numbering  the  people,  which  had  been  done  seve- 
ral times  before,  by  the  Lord's  command,  and  after 
this  without  anv  mischief. 

It  IS  not  f)roi)oscd  to  take  notice  of  every  angry  fit 
the  Lord  took,  that  would  be  to  transcribe  the  remain- 
ing part  of  the  Jewish  history  :  the  kings  of  Judali 
and  Israel  were  continually  giving  him  provocation. 
Ahab  is  said  to  have  done  more  to  provoke  the  Lord 
to  anger,  than  all  the  kings  of  Israel  that  went  before 
him,  1  Kings  xvi.  33.  The  78th  Psalm  is  wholly  ta- 
ken up  with  recounting  the  ])rovocations  he  had  re- 
ceived, and  the  passions  he  had  been  put  into  ;  these 
he  bore  for  soujc  time,  being  rather  drowsy  ;  l)ut  wliru 
they  could  not  be  any  longer  endured,  "  Then  the 
Lord  awaked  as  one  out  of  sleep,  and  like  a  mighty 
man,  that  shouteth  by  reason  of  wine  ;  and  he;  smote 
his  enemies  in  the  hinder  j)arts  :  \w  |)ut  them  to  a  per- 
j)etual  reproach  :"  verse  (i.O,  GG.  it  is  no  unconininii 
thing  for  drunkards  and  lools  to  behave  in  this  manner  ! 

The  prophets  are  lull  of  the  overlhjwing  bile  of  liiis 
choleric  Deitv,  where  he  is  eontinualiv  ventintj  his 
rage  and  threats  a^ainstone  jxopleor  another  ;  de'noun- 
cing   war,   mischief,    and  ruin,    against   wl^oever   hap- 


44  THE  GOD  OF  THE  JEWS; 

pons  to  be  the  objects  of  his  vengeance  ;  even  his 
chosen  covenanted  people  were  by  no  means  spared, 
but  must  take  their  share  of  his  maledictions.  The 
prophets  give  us  very  lively  descriptions  of  his  furious 
temper,  not  much  in  unison  with  the  character  of 
mercy  and  peace.  What  kind  of  temper  must  he  be 
in,  when  he  says,  "  My  fury  shall  come  up  in  my 
face  :  for  in  my  jealousy,  and  in  the  fire  of  my  wrath, 
have  I  spoken?"  Ezek.  xxxvi.  18.  As  to  the  method 
of  melting  people  in  the  fire  of  his  wrath,  see  chap. 
XV.  22. 

The  prophet  Nahum  begins  his  prophecy,  by  de- 
scribing the  passionate  and  revengeful  temper  of  his 
God,  chap.  i.  2.  "  God  is  jealous,  and  the  Lord  re- 
vengeth  and  is  furious  ;  the  Lord  will  take  vengeance 
On  his  adversaries  ;  and  he  reserveth  wrath  for  his  ene- 
mies."— "  For  by  fire  and  by  his  sword  shall  the 
Lord  plead  with  all  flesh  ;  and  the  slain  of  the  Lord 
shall  be  many."  Isa.  Ixvi.  16.  Behold  the  tiger-like 
ferocity  of  this  Deity  !  "  Therefore  I  will  be  unto 
them  as  a  lion  ;  as  a  leopard  by  the  way  will  I  observe 
them.  I  will  meet  them  as  a  bear  that  is  bereaved  of 
her  whelps,  and  will  rend  the  caul  of  their  heart,  and 
there  will  I  devour  them  like  a  lion."  The  prophet  Jere- 
miah says,  "  He  was  unto  me  as  a  bear  lying  in  wait,  and 
as  a  lion  in  secret  places."  Lam.  iii.  10.  Is  it 
possible  for  human  nature  to  conceive  Deity,  repre- 
senting himself  as  a  savage  wild  beast,  devouring  the 
human  race  }  To  what  a  condition  hath  superstition 
reduced  human  intellect ! 

Anger  and  passion  are  always  succeeded  by  remorse 
and  repentance,  and  those  who  are  wrathful  and  furi- 
ous are  ever  inconstant  and  fluctuating  ;  it  is  to  this 
cause  we  are  to  abscribe  the  repenting  and  changeable 
humour  of  the  Hebrew  Deity.  If  we  are  to  credit  his 
own  word  in  Genesis,  the  greatest  and  most  important 
of  all  his  works  (the  creation  of  man)  which  himself 
had  pronounced  very  good,  he  repented  of,  and  it 
grieved  him  at  the  heart,  chap,  vi,  6.     This  is  truly  an 


OR,  JliHOVAH  UNVEILED.  45 

odd  story  !  Tliat  God  should  make  man  "  very  good," 
and  that  afterwards  he  should  repent  of  it,  and  be  grieved 
at  the  heart.  Why  so  ?  Did  he  not  understand  the 
nature  of  the  materials  he  was  working  with  ?  Was 
he  an  apprentice  at  the  art  of  man  making  ?  If  so, 
why  did  not  some  of  the  other  gods  he  alludes  to, 
chap.  i.  96,  36j  xxii,  11,  6,  try  their  skill  .^  This  is 
the  grand  and  primary  blunder  !  Had  he  made  man,  so 
as  to  please  himself  upon  trial,  it  would  have  saved 
him  a  world  of  provocations,  and  fits  of  anger  ;  and 
spared  him  a  variety  of  unsuccessful  expedients  for  his 
reformation.  It  not  only  repented  him  that  he  had 
made  man,  but  also  beasts,  and  creeping  things,  and 
fowls  of  the  air.  These  he  intended  to  have  totally 
destroyed,  had  it  not  been  for  the  persuasive  eloquence 
of  Noah,  which  made  him  forego  that  resolution,  and 
save  a  breed  of  each  species ;  which  he  got  safely 
packed  up  in  his  ark,  secure  against  the  effects  of  that 
terrible  deluge,  which  hath  inundated  human  reason 
ever  since.  Noah  did  still  more  after  the  flood  was 
gone  ;  he  put  him  in  such  good  humour  with  the  sweet 
smelling  savour  of  a  sacrifice,  that  he  promised  to 
drown  the  world  no  more,  chap.  viii.  21,  although 
some  time  or  other  he  may  burn  it  to  a  cinder. 

What  could  the  matter  be,  that  the  Lord  wanted  to 
kill  Moses  "  by  the  way  in  the  inn  ?"  He  must 
surely  have  changed  his  mind  very  suddenly,  as  he  had 
just  appointed  him  captain  and  leader  over  his  people 
Israel.  This  is  a  very  dark  afl'air,  and  wants  much  die 
elucidation  of  the  priesthood. 

At  times,  when  he  let  the  affairs  of  his  people  go  a 
little  behind-hand  and  run  into  disorder,  he  would  re- 
pent, because  of  their  groanings.  See  Judg.  ii.  18. 
This  rej)entance  was,  however,  but  of  small  service, 
though  he  stirred  up  several  to  set  them  to  rights;  yet 
being  only  th<^  efforts  of  private  individuals,  they  were 
but  temporary  expedients,  productive  of  no  great  ad- 
vantage. So  little  had  the  Jewish  ( iod  of  the  sj)irit  of 
discernment,  that  he  often  made  choice  of  men  to  fiJJ 


40  THE  nOD  OF  THE  JEWS; 

public  employmciits,  and  iTpeiitcd  of  it  aftorvvardf<. 
This  is  clearly  illustrated  in  the  case  of  Saul,  whom 
the  Lord  had  taken  great  pains  to  select,  as  a  proper 
person  to  be  king  over  his  people,  and  made  him  a 
present  of  another  heart,  1  Sam.  ix.  10,  and  "  his 
Spirit,"  xi.  6.  Yet,  notwithstanding  he  was  his 
choice,  and  one  on  whom  he  had  bestowed  such  rare 
accomplishments,  it  was  not  long  before  he  repented 
that  he  had  made  him  king,  cha{).  xvi.  9,  10,  ti5,  and 
he  took  away  his  spirit  from  him,  which  he  had  so 
kindly  lent,  and  sent  an  evil  one  in  its  place.  Chap. 
xvi.  14.  Was  not  this  a  notable  exchange  ?  I  should 
be  glad  to  know  which  of  the  two  spirits  influenced 
Saul  when  he  declined  the  murder  of  king  Agag? 
However,  the  spirit  which  the  Lord  took  from  Saul 
was  given  to  "  the  man  after  his  own  heart,"  who  did 
not  stick  at  a  murder.  His  choice  of  the  Israel itish 
kings  turned  out  no  better ;  even  those  whom  he  sent 
his  prophets  expressly  to  anoint  did  not  please  him, 
but  proved  as  bad  as  the  other ;  so,  whether  he  chose 
them,  or  the  people,  he  equally  repented  of  it. 

The  godly  Hezekiah  could  not  be  sure  of  his  favour 
for  any  long  time.  During  a  severe  illness,  the  pro- 
phet Isaiah  was  sent  with  the  consolatory  message, 
that  he  "  should  die  and  not  live;"  and  it  was  not 
until  he  had  prayed,  and  reminded  him  of  his  good 
behaviour,  that  the  Lord  changed  his  mind,  and  or- 
dered Isaiah  back  to  tell  him  he  was  allowed  to  live 
fifteen  years  longer.  See  2  Kings  xx.  The  Lord, 
after  trying  various  schemes  for  the  amendment  of 
these  stiff-necked  Jews,  sometimes  blessing,  sometimes 
cursing  them,  he  repented  so  often,  that  at  last  he 
turned  "  weary  of  repenting,"  Jer.  xv.  6.  Yet,  after 
all,  "  he  is  not  a  man  that  he  should  repent,^'  1  Sam. 
XV.  29. 

There  are  ])laces  in  the  Lord's  word  that  would 
make  us  suspect  that  he  is  not  so  almighty  as  is  pre- 
tended. The  six  days'  work  of  the  creation  tired  him, 
iOf  "  on  the  seventh  day  he  rested  and  was  refreshed  " 


5 


OR,  JEHOVATI  UNVEILED.  47 

Exod.xxxi.  17.  Thus,  it  appears,  the  Lord  needs  rest 
hke  other  folks.  If  he  has  hiisiness  of  importance  on 
hand  it  requires  him  to  rise  early.  "  And  I  spake 
unto  you  rising- up  early  and  speaking;  I  have  sent 
unto  you  all  my  servants  the  prophets  daily,  rising-  up 
early  and  sendins:  them."  Jer.  vii.  13,  2o.  Itappears 
from  Malachi  ii.  17,  that  the  Jews  wearied  him  with 
their  words.  "  Jacob  by  his  strength  had  power  with 
God."  llos.  xii.  2,  which  was  somewhat  strange,  if 
we  believe  him  to  be  omnipotent. 

If  he  was  almii;hty,  how  is  it  that  "  he  could  not 
drive  out  the  inhabitants  of  the  valley,  because  they 
had  chariots  of  iron  ?"  Judg.  i.  19.  Is  almighty  power 
not  a  match  for  iron  chariots,  especially  after  he  had 
defeated  the  mountaineers?  What  could  the  matter 
be,  that  the  angel  of  the  Lord  ordered  to  "  curse  bit- 
terly the  inhabitants  of  iNIeroz,  because  they  came  not 
to  the  help  of  the  Lord,  to  the  help  of  the  Lord  against 
the  mighty  r"  chap,  v.  2.3.  Does  infinite  power  stand 
in  need  of  help  .^  Or,  is  almighty  strength  not  an 
overmatch  for  the  mighty.^  Perhaps  the  Lord  loved 
his  ease,  and  wanted  other  people  to  fight  his  battles. 
The  profane  may  suspect  the  Psalmist  hints  at  some- 
thill^•  of  this  kind,  when  lu^  says,  Psal.  Ixxiv.  11, 
"  Why  witlujrawest  thou  thy  hand,  even  thy  right 
hand?  Pluck  it  out  of  thy  bosom."  I  hope  infidels 
will  not  imagine  the  l^salmist  means  to  accuse;  the 
Lord  of  laziness!  For  all  his  mighty  boasting  of 
driving  out  the  inhabitants  of  (Janaan,  and  utterly  de- 
stroying them,  he  could  not  effect  it.  In  the  time  of 
the  Judg{,'S,  Jabin,  their  kin<r,  had  nine  hundred  iron 
chariots;  a  good  sign  of  power  and  strength.  It  is 
somewhat  strange,  to  hear  an  all-powerful  lUinj^  com- 
paring himself  to  a  moth,  and  to  rottenness,  llos.  v. 
12.  it  would  seen)  he  was  rather  hard  jint  to  it,  when 
he  says,  Amos  ii.  l.'J,  "  lleliold  1  am  prt\ssed  under 
you  as  a  cart  is  pressed  that  is  full  of  sheaves." 
These  things  are  not  altogi.'ther  in  unison  with 
onmipotence ! 


^  THE  COD  OF  THE  JEWS; 

Neither  is  it  possible  tor  us  to  conceive,  liovv  the 
ahiiight}',  who  is  Lord  ot"  all,  "  who  giveth  to  all 
liberally  and  upbraideth  none,"  needeth  to  wheedle  his 
people  out  of  their  proj)erty,  and,  like  a  needy  adven- 
turer, cozen  the  ignorant  by  magnificent  promises  of 
repayment.  Although  "  the  earth  be  the  Lord's,  and 
the  fulness  thereof,"  yet  he  complains  of  being  robbed, 
Mai.  iii.  8 :  "  Will  a  man  rob  God  ?  yet  ye  have 
robbed  me.  But  ye  say  wherein  have  we  robbed 
thee  }  in  tithes  and  offerings."  For  which  he  tells  them, 
"  Yc  are  cursed  with  a  curse,  for  ve  have  robljed  mo, 
even  this  whole  nation."  But  despairing  of  territying 
them  by  a  curse,  he  wishes  to  cozen  them  by  saying, 
*'  Bring  ye  all  the  tithes  into  the  storehouse,  that  there 
may  be  meat  in  mine  house,  and  prove  me  now  there- 
with, sayeth  the  Lord  of  hosts,  if  I  will  not  open  you 
the  windows  of  heaven,  and  pour  ye  out  a  blessing, 
that  there  shall  not  be  room  enough  to  receive  it. 
Mai.  iii.  3,  10.    Bravo/ 

There  are  also  texts  to  be  found  which  make  his 
omniscience  a  little  doubtful.  He  does  not  appear  to 
be  altogether  certain  if  the  wickedness  of  Sodom  and 
Gomorrah  was  so  great  as  represented,  for  he  says, 
Gen.  xviii.  21,  "I  will  go  down  now,  and  see  whe- 
ther they  have  done  altogether  according  unto  the  cry 
of  it,  which  is  come  unto  me ;  and  if  not,  I  will 
knovv\"  See  also  Exod.  ii.  '23.  It  was  not  till  after 
the  "  father  of  the  faithful"  had  gone  the  length  of 
sacrificing  his  son,  that  the  Lord  was  thoroughly  satis- 
fied of  his  fidelity.  Nor  was  it  before  the  uplifted 
knife  was  reared  to  deprive  Isaac  of  life,  that  the  angel 


'  It  was  a  pity  the  Lord  did  not  come  down  of  late,  to  see  whether 
the  wickedness  of  some  modern  Sodomites  was  altogether  according 
to  the  cry  of  it  that  hath  reached  us.  Some  people  will  do  that  in 
the  presence  of  an  all-seeing  God  which  a  hint  from  the  public  pro- 
secutor will  make  them  fly  the  country  for.  The  purest  church  on 
earth  is  happy  in  the  possession  of  such  worthy  members;  for, 
*'  where  sin  ajjoundeth,  grace  doth  much  more  abound!" 


OR,  JEHOVAH  UNVEILED.  49 

called  out  of  heaven,  "  Now  I  know  that  thou  fearest 
God,^'  chap.  xxii.  12.  1  am  inclined  to  think  tliis 
was  rather  a  severe  trial  of  the  patriarch's  faith  ! 

The  manna  was  given  to  prove  the  Israelites,  whe- 
ther they  would  walk  in  his  law  or  not,  Exod.  xvi.  4, 
which,  it  seems,  he  was  not  sure  of,  until  he  had 
proved  them  by  this  experiment,  which  was  not  suc- 
cessful, as  they  provoked  him  ten  times,  and  fell  a 
murmuring  upon  the  return  of  the  spies ;  before,  he 
was  determined  that  not  one  of  all  that  generation 
should  see  the  promised  land.  Num.  xiv.  29.  Jle 
was  puzzled  how  to  behave  to  those  who  had  their 
holiday  clothes  on,  for  he  tells  the  Israelites,  "  Put  off 
thy  ornaments  from  thee,  that  1  may  know  what  to  do 
unto  thee."  An  all-wise  Being  had  no  occasion  to 
strip  people  of  their  dress  before  he  knew  how  to  act ! 
See  Exod.  xxxiii.  5.  Hezekiah  must  be  proved,  for 
all  his  piety,  in  a  very  delicate  aflair :  "  God  left  him 
to  try  him,  that  he  might  know  all  that  was  in  his 
heart."  2  Chron.  xxxii.  .'31.  Other  instances  can  be 
produced  of  the  Lord  doing  things  to  try  people  ;  this 
shews  he  knows  them  by  experience  only,  the  same 
way  as  other  people  do,  which  says  not  a  great  deal 
for  his  all-.seei ng  eye. 

If  the  Lord  be  ignorant  of  men,  he  is  more  so  of 
things.  It  was  for  fiear  that  men  should  build  a  tower 
to  reach  to  II(\iven  that  made  him  confound  their 
language  ;  but  he  must  have  Ix'eu  confoundedly  stupid 
to  imagine  men  could  ever  reach  heaven  by  a  tower. 
Although  that  "  heaven  be  God's  throne,  and  the 
earUi  his  footstool,"  and  that  "  he  sits  in  heaven,"  yet 
he  has  nev(T  told  any  one  where  it  is  situated.  O, 
that  he  would  tell  us  its  latitude  and  longitude,  and 
di.scover  it  as  clearly  as  Columbus  did  Anurira,  to 
our  modern  saints,  who  are  on  tin-  road  to  it  in  droves; 
this  would  be  satisfactory  information  !  As  for  the 
ancirnt  .lews  he  never  promised  them  heaven,  so  they 
did  not  care  where  it  was. 

Neither   are   there   wanting    soim-    untoward    texts, 

G 


50  THE  COP  OF  THE  JEWS; 

whicli  are  not  quite  so  favourable  to  his  omnipresence 
as  could   be  wished,   which  represent  him  rather  as  a 
kind  of  local  divinity  than   one  extended  to  every  part 
of  space.     In   Genesis  i.  26,   iii.   5,  xxii.    9,   7,   he 
classes  himself  in   company  with  other  gods,  and  de- 
signs himself  the   God   of  particular   persons,    chap, 
xxiv.  12,   and  places.     Deut.  xxxiii.  26,  his  own  cap- 
tain,  Jephtha,   did  not  scruple  to  admit  of  other  gods 
than  his  own  ;  his  words   are  remarkable ;  concluding 
his  remonstrance  to  the   king  of  the  Ammonites,  he 
asks,  "  Wilt   not  thou  possess  that  which    Chemosh 
thy   God   giveth   thee  to   possess }    So,  whomsoever 
the  Lord  our  God  shall  drive  out  from  before  us,  them 
will  we  possess."     That  is,   we  do  not  deny   the  au- 
thority of  thv  God  ;  therefore  do  not  refuse   to  admit 
that  of  ours.     The  Jews   talked  of  their  God  as  chil- 
dren do  of  their  dolls :  "  Yours  are  very  pretty,  but 
ours    are  far  better:" — "  Great  is  our  God  above  all 
gods."     Who  can  believe  in  the  ubiquity  of  a  being 
talking  out  of  a  bush,  Exod.  iii.  4,  or  on  the  top  of  a 
mountain,  chap.  xix.  90 ;    who   had  been    seen  and 
spoken  to  by  Moses  face  to  face,   Exod.  xxxiii.  11; 
as  well  as  by  die  whole  peojjle.   Num.  xiv.  14.  Deut. 
V.  4  ;  who  had  human  parts  as  well  as  human  passions, 
who  had  a  marquee   in  the  wilderness,  and   a  temple 
when  they  were  settled   to  reside  in.     The  prophet 
Jonah,  not  liking  to  go  on  a  message  to  Nineveh,  fled 
to  Tarshish  from  the  presence  of  the  Lord  ;  which  is 
no  great  proof  of  his  being  a  staunch  believer  in  his 
omnipresence.     Those  who  can  see  the  God  of  uni- 
versal nature  in  this  being,  must  have  more  faith  and 
less  reason    than   a   wise   man    would  choose  to  be 
possessed  of. 

It  just  remains  for  us  to  make  a  few  remarks  on  the 
Lord's  character  as  a  writer,  which  shall  be  done  in  as 
concise  a  manner  as  possible.  Had  the  same  being 
who  created  the  world  wrote  the  history  of  its  creation, 
he  would  never  have  talked  of  the  light  before  the  sun 
was  made,  with  two  great  lights,  the  one  to  rule  the 


OR,  JEHOVAH  UNVEILED.  51 

daj,  and  the  other  the  night ;  as  there  is  only  one 
light  whose  presence  constitutes  day,  and  its  absence 
makes  night.  Before  science  had  outshone  revehition, 
none  were  allowed  to  contradict  these  stories,  on  pain 
of  being  roasted  alive  ;  since  that  period  the  priest- 
hood have  been  obliged  to  shift  their  ground.  They 
now  call  this  miserable  nonsense,  "  Divine  wisdom 
accommodating  itself  to  the  language  of  men." 

Neither  would  he  have  spoken  of"  a  firmament,  with 
waters  either  above  or  below  it,  when  there  is  no  fir- 
manent  in  existence.  The  Lord  must  be  grossly  igno- 
rant of  physics,  to  relate  the  history  of  the  deluge  in 
the  way  he  has  done  :  a  modern  chymist  would  have 
instructed  him  better  in  the  i)roduction  of  rain,  "•  than 
breaking  up  the  fountains  of  the  great  deep,  or  opening 
the  windows  of  heaven,''  which  are  no  where  to  be 
found.  The  author  of  this  history  has  not  sense  enough 
to  see,  that  making  the  waters  to  cover  the  highest 
mountains  fifteen  cubits,  increases  the  earth's  magni- 
tude far  beyond  its  present  bulk,  alters  its  orbit,  &c. 
but  it  is  impossible  such  an  event  ever  did  or  even  can 
take  place.  This  will  satisfy  both  the  infidel  and  the 
believer;  as  the  one  will  give  no  credit  to  the  story, 
while  the  other  will  swallow  it  with  the  greater  alacri- 
ty. It  was  not  he,  surely,  which  fashioneth  us  in  the 
womb,  who  tells  the  story  of  the  scarlet  thread  at  the 
birth  of  Tamar's  two  sons,  Gen.  xxxviii.  'i7,  which, 
for  stupid  ignorance  and  beastly  obscenity,  is  without 
a  parallel. 

The  former  part  of  this  story  shews  us,  that  saints 
were  not  ashamed  of  bargaining  with  girls  on  the  high- 
way in  open  day,  and  perform ing  certain  nameless 
rites,  which  modern  manners  enjoin  us  to  throw  a 
veil  over. 

As  little  would  any  person,  endued  with  the  smallest 

portion   of  conmion   sense ,   snj)post'  the  |)arents  of   a 

girl  to  be    keepers  of  tin-   tokens   of  Ik  r   virginity,    or 

that  such  wan?   could   be   h;mded    about  and    madi^    a 

^  show  of.     Dcut.  xxii.  13,  'JU.     The  magistrates  of  our 


52  THE  COD  OF  THE  JEWS; 

cities  would  have  a  fine  time  of  it,  if  clothes  of  the 
nature  alhuK'd  to  were*  to  be  spread  before  them.  If 
the  profane  were  to  write  such  stuff,  they  would,  very 
properly,  be  reckoned  insane  ;  but  coming  from  the 
pen  of  an  inspired  writer,  then  it  rises  into  divinity, 
sublimity,  and  infallible  truth. 

The  Lord  is  by  no  means  an  observer  of  the  laws  of 
probability  in  his  writings  :  inconsistencies  and  absur- 
dities swarm  through  the  whole  ;  which  is  another 
proof  of  iheir  divine  original.  In  Gen.  i.  27,  "God 
created  man  in  his  own  image,  male  and  female, 
created  he  them."  This  he  forgets  having  performed, 
and  Adam  is  much  distressed  for  want  of  a  partner, 
and  the  Lord  is  obliged  to  take  one  of  his  ribs  and 
make  one  of  it,  chap.  ii.  22.  Is  it  any  way  Ukely  that 
two  men,  Simeon  and  Levi,  should  be  able  to  take  and 
destroy  a  whole  city,  and  kill  all  the  males  ?  chap, 
xxxiv.  2.5.  Who  can  believe  the  prodigious  increase 
of  the  Israelites  while  slaves  to  the  Egyptians  }  Ex- 
perience teaches  a  different  lesson  in  our  day,  when  so 
many  unhappy  Africans  are  required  annually  to  sup- 
ply the  waste  of  our  West  India  colonies. — But  I  am 
apt  to  think  there  must  have  been  a  vast  difference 
between  Egyptian  bondage  and  Negro  slavery.  The 
Jews  we  know  wanted  often  to  return  to  "  the  flesh 
pots"  of  Egypt,  but  we  never  heard  of  a  Negro 
who  regretted  leaving  the  herrings  and  yams  of  a 
planter. 

Will  any  person  credit  the  account  of  massacreing  so 
many  people  by  the  Levites,  Exod.  xxxii.  28..  The 
Jews  were  rather  stiff-necked  to  suffer  such  wanton 
butchery.  This  story,  however,  has  its  equal  in  the 
Christian  romance  of  the  Theban  legion.  The  profane 
are  somewhat  astonished  to  find  the  princes  of  Israel 
offering  large  quantities  of  "  fine  flour  mingled  with 
oil,"  at  the  dedication  of  the  tabernacle,  Numb.  vii. 
in  a  desert  where  no  corn  grew,  where  the  Lord  was 
obliged  to  rain  bread  from  heaven  to  keep  them  alive  : 
neither  had  they  any  for  many  years  after,  and  yet  be 


OR,  JEHOVAH  UNVEILED.  53 

in  want  of  flesh,  when  they  had  "  flocks  and  herds, 
even  much  cattle. ^^  See  Josh.  ii.  12.  This  is  a 
very  consistent  story  !  It  is  no  less  wonderful  to  con- 
ceive how  they  could  erect  such  a  magnificent  taberna- 
cle, adorned  with  carving  and  embroidery,  by  artists 
who  had  only  learnt  the  trade  of  brick  making;  with  a 
service  of  plate  worth  more  than  half  a  million  sterling-, 
Exod.  xxviii.  such  as  we  could  only  expect  in  the 
cities  of  Paris  or  London.  To  do  this  in  the  midst  of 
a  wilderness,  wanting  bread,  where  the  Lord  was 
obliged  to  keep  the  clothes  on  their  backs,  and  the 
shoes  on  their  feet,  Deut.  xxix.  5,  gives  those  who  are 
a  little  sceptically  inclined  some  ground  for  suspicion. 

Who  can  endure  to  hear  the  Lord  boasting  that  he 
had  *'  kept  him  (Israel)  as  the  apple  of  his  eye,"  Deut. 
xxxiii.  10  ;  when  he  had  slain  such  prodigious  num- 
bers of  them,  and  utterly  destroyed  the  whole  genera- 
tion ? 

The  history  of  wSamson's  exploits  is  liable  to  great 
objections,  allowing  his  prodigious  strength  ;  the  tale 
of  the  foxes  and  firebrands  is  so  absurd,  as  to  put 
even  inspiration  its-elf,  one  would  think,  to  the  blush. 
The  architecture  of  a  temple,  standing  upon  two  pil- 
lars, which  a  man  could  pull  down  with  his  hands,  and 
lay  the  whole  edifice  in  ruins,  is  so  inconceivable,  that 
the  grace  of  faith  alone  can  enable  us  to  do  it. 

The  account  of  David's  introduction  to  the  court  of 
Saul,  as  related  1  Sam.  xvi.  1(),  is  totally  inconsistent 
with  the  other,  chap.  xvii.  The  stubl>orn  difference 
btjtween  the  two  is  so  striking,  that  they  refuse  to 
assimilate,  after  all  the  finesse  of  theological  twisting 
have  been  employed  upon  them.  Tlie  difl''erent  ac- 
counts of  th(;  death  of  Saul,  1  Sam.  xxxi.  and  2  Sam. 
i.  2,  is  no  less  distressing;  without  faith  litth;  credit 
could  be  attached  to  either.  The  f«Ttility  of  Absalom's 
head  is  very  wonderful,  four  pounds  thirteen  oiukms  of 
hair  was  a  pretty  tolerable  crop  in  a  year.  This  shews 
the  extrerrK^  fertility  of  revelation  abovt!  nature. 

The  prodigious  magnificence  of  Solomon  is  beyond 


64  THE  COD  01-  THE  JEWS; 

all  belief.  How  is  it  creditable  that  the  prince  of  so 
small  a  country  as  .ludea  should  be  in  possession  of 
such  enormous  wealtli  ;  whose  father  had  begun  his 
fortune  by  heading  a  gang^  of  banditti,  and  jilundering 
a  few  strolling  Arabs  ?  Forty  thousand  stalls  for 
horses  were  a  great  many  in  a  country  that  reared  only 
asses  to  fill  them.  But  what  outdoes  all  these  tales,  is 
telling  us  of  seventy  thousand  labourers,  eighty  thou- 
sand quarriers  and  stone-cutters,  and  three  thousand 
six  hundred  overseers,  being  employed  seven  years  in 
building  a  house  ninety  feet  long,  thirty  broad,  and 
forty-five  high.  See  2  Chron.  ii.  1,  and  1  Kings  vi. 
38.  Why  surely  the  Lord  had  forgot  himself  a  little 
when  he  wrote  this  account !  To  people  living  at  this 
day,  and  witnessing  the  late  war  on  the  continent, 
who  know  with  what  extreme  difficulty  the  greatest 
powers  in  Europe  could  bring  armies  of  two  and  three 
hundred  thousand  men  into  the  field,  and  that  it  was 
by  an  eflfort  without  a  parallel,  that  the  French  Repub- 
lic could  muster  a  force  of  one  million  two  hundred 
thousand  men.  Even  faith  itself  will  scarcely  be  able 
to  persuade  them,  that  two  petty  kings  of  Judah  and 
Israel  could  bring  into  the  field,  one  an  army  of  four 
hundred  thousand,  and  the  other  eight  hundred  thou- 
sand fighting  men,  where  there  were  five  hundred 
thousand  killed  in  one  battle,  2  Chron.  xiii.  3.  As 
little  credit  is  to  be  attached  to  the  killing  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty  thousand  Midianites,  Judges  viii.  10, 
and  one  hundred  thousand  Syrians  in  one  day,  or  a 
wall  falling  and  burying  twenty-seven  thousand  men 
in  the  rubbish,  1  Kings  xx.  29,  30.  Or  that  "  Pekah, 
the  son  of  Ramaliah,  slew  in  Judah  one  hundred  and 
twenty  thousand  in  one  day,  which  were  all  valiant 
men."  2  Chron.  xxviii.  6 ;  especially  as  it  contradicts 
a  celebrated  prophecy  of  the  Lord's.  See  Isaiah,  chap, 
vii.  It  is  wholly  incredible,  that  "  the  angel  of  the 
Lord  went  out,  and  smote  in  the  camp  of  the  Assy- 
rians one  hundred  and  eighty-five  thousand ;  and 
when  they  arose  early  in  the  morning,  behold  they 


OR,  JEHOVAH  UNVEILED.  55 

were  all  dead  corpse,"  2  Kings  xix.  35.  How  Joasli 
could  be  "  stole  from  among  the  king's  sons  that  were 
slain,"  is  to  us  very  surprising,  when  we  are  told  ot'his 
being  hid,  and  escaping  the  slaughter,  2  Chron.  xxii. 
11.  It  must  be  allowed  that  the  Lord  sometimes 
makes  a  bull ! 

These  arc  only  a  few  specimens  of  the  sacred  truths 
which  might  be  collected  from  this  divine  book,  as  a 
sweet  morsel  for  the  elect,  but  a  bitter  one  for  infi- 
delity to  digest.  Great  is  the  mystery  of  ignorance, 
stupidity  manifested  in  the  belief  of  absurdities ! 

Those  who  hire  themselves  out  to  explain  this  holy 
book  uniformly   assert,   that  the  Bible  is  an   unerring 
rule  of  faith  and  manners,  and  the  Westminster  divines, 
in    their    Confession    of    Faith,    have   declared,   that 
"  God,   by  his  singular  care  and  providence,   has  kept 
them  pure  in  all  ages  of  the  world."     Which  purity 
consists  in  bein;^^   dark  as  Erebus,  confused  as  chaos, 
and  opposite  as  the  poles.     A  modern  Apologist,  who 
has  said  as  much  as  he  possibly  can  in   fovour  of  the 
inspiration,  has   resigned  the  singular  care  and  provi- 
dence to   the   mercy  of   its    detractors;    while    Bible 
critics  of  all   ages  give   us  abundant   proofs  of  the  al- 
terations it  must  have   undergone,   both  from    pious 
fraud  and   holy  ignorance.     We  shall  at  present  drop 
these  objections,   as  they  are  but  gnats  for  believers  to 
swallow,  and  proceed  to  observe  a  few  of  those  divine 
contradictions,  which  render  this  book  so  peculiarly 
edifying  to  the  godly. 

The    1  1th   chapter  of  Genesis   makes    Abram    one 

hundred  and   ihirtv-five  years  of  age  when   he  left  the 

country  of  Ilaran,    the  l^th  chapter  says  he  was  only 

seventy-five.     The  Lord  threatcMis  to  visit  the   inicpii- 

ties  of  the  fathers    upon  the  ehildren  to  the  third  niid 

fourth  generation,  FA'od.  xx.  5  ;  xxxiv.  7  ;   Num.  xiv. 

IS;    Deut.  v.  9.     This   he    flatly  denies,    Deut.  xxiv. 

K).     2  Chron.  XXV.  4,   and  the   whole;  ISth  chapter  of 

Kzekiel,    is  t.iken  up    in  demonstrating^  the  injustiee  of 

it.     In  Exodus  xxxiii.  1  I,   the  Loril  speaks   to  Moses 


96  THE  GOD  OF  THE  JEWS; 

face  to  face,  as  a  man  speaks  to  liis  friend  ;  in  the  90th 
verse  he  could  not  sec  his  face,  for  no  man  conld  see  it 
and  live.  Num.  xxvii.  \3.  Deut.  xxxii.  49,  the  Lord 
ordered  Moses  to  go  up  on  Mount  Abarim,  and  die 
there  ;  Deut.  xxxiv.  1,  says  it  was  on  the  top  of  Pis- 
gah.  As  Moses  died  at  two  different  places,  it  must 
also  have  been  at  different  times.  Aaron  also  died  at 
Mosera,  Deut.  x.  6,  and  at  Mount  Hor,  seven  stations 
from  the  former  place,  Num.  xxxiii.  30,  ^8  ;  two 
strong  proofs  of  a  resurrection,  most  unfortunately 
overlooked  by  commentators.  If  we  believe  Joshua 
X.  36,  it  was  him,  and  all  Israel  with  him,  that  took 
Hebron  and  Debir;  but  if  we  are  to  credit  chap.  xv. 
14,  Jud.  i.  10,  these  places  were  not  taken  for  a  long 
time  after  that. 

In  2 Sam.  xxiv.  I,   the  Lord  moved  David  to  num- 
ber Israel  and  Judah,  and  the  numbers  were,    the  men 
of  Israel  eight  hundred  thousand,  and  of  Judah  five 
hundred   thousand,   for  which  he  had  the  choice  of 
seven  years*  famine,  three  months'  war,  or  three  days* 
pestilence;  and  the  price  he  paid  for  Auranah's  thrash- 
ing-floor is  stated  at  fifty  shekels  of  silver.     1  Chron. 
xxi.  1,   says  it  was  Satan  who  provoked  David:  the 
numbers  here  are  the  men  of  Israel  one  million  one 
hundred  thousand,   those  of  Judah   four  hundred  and 
seventy  thousand  ;  the  time  of  the  famine  is  dwindled 
away  to  three  years,   but  the  price  of  the  thrashing- 
floor   is  advanced  to  six   hundred    shekels   of   gold. 
1  Kings  iv.  26,  says,  Solomon  had  forty  thousand  stalls 
for  horses  ;  2  Chron,  ix.  25,  allows  no  more  than  four 
thousand.      1  Kings  v.  11,   says  Solomon  gave  to  Hi- 
ram twenty  thousand   measures  of  wheat,   and  twenty 
measures  of  oil.     2  Chron.  ii.  10,  makes  twenty  thou- 
sand  measures  of  wheat,  twenty  thousand  of  barley, 
twenty  thousand   baths  of  wine,  and  twenty  thousand 
of  oil.     In   1  Kings  vii.  14,   the  artificer,   whom   the 
king  of  Tyre  sent   to   Solomon,  was   the   son    of  a 
woman  of  the  tribe  of  Naphtali ;  2  Chron.  ii.  14,  says 
she  was  of  the  tribe  of  Dan.      1  Kings  vii.  1.5,  makes 


OR,  JEHOVAH  UNVEILED.  5? 

the  two  pillars  of  the  porch  eighteen  cubits  ;  "S  Chroii. 
iii.  lo,  makes  them  thirty-five.  1  Kings  vii.  26,  makes 
the  brazen  sea  to  contain  two  thousand  baths ; 
2  Chron.  iv.  o,  says  three  thousand.  I  Kings  xv.  2, 
says  Abijah's  mother  was  jNlaachah,  the  daughter  of 
Abishalom  ;  the  10th  verse  of  this  chapter  says  she 
was  the  mother  of  Asa;  2  Chron.  xi.  20,  says  Abi- 
jah's  mother  was  Maachah,  the  daughter  of  Absalom, 
but  chap.  xiii.  2,  says  it  was  Michaiah,  the  daughter 
of  Uriel  of  Gibeah,  that  was  Abijah^s  mother. 
1  Kings  XV.  1 6,  32,  says,  "  There  was  wax  between 
Baasha  and  Asa  all  their  days  ;"  now  as  Baasha  began 
to  reign  in  the  third  year  of  Asa,  this  war  must  have 
been  during  the  ten  years  the  land  had  quiet,  2  Chron. 
xiv.  1 .  But  how  are  we  surprised  to  find,  that  after 
the  period  of  this  ten  years'  quiet,  it  was  not  with 
Baasha,  but  with  Zerah,  the  Ethiopian,  who  had  an 
host  of  one  million  three  hundred  chariots,  whom  he 
attacked  with  five  hundred  and  eighty  thousand  men, 
that  he  had  war,  verse  9.  How  immensely  superior 
in  point  of  numbers  are  revealed  armies  to  those  which 
the  greatest  powers  could  ever  actually  bring  into  the 
held.  "  And  there  was  no  more  war  until  the  five- 
and-thirtieth  year  of  the  reign  of  Asa,"  chap.  xv.  19, 
when  Baasha  must  have  been  dead  nine  years,  accord- 
ing to  1  Kings  xvi.  8.  Nor  was  it  until  the  six-and- 
thirtieth  year  of  Asa  that  Baasha  began  to  build  Ila- 
mah  (ten  years  after  he  was  dead),  which  was  surely 
no  war ;  and  we  have  no  accounts  of  any  other. 
When  a  revealed  story  is  both  contradictory  and  con- 
fused, it  is  a  proof  that  inspiration  has  reached  the 
acme. 

2  Kings  r,  17,  says  that  Jehoram,  the  son  of  Ahab, 
began  to  reign  in  th(;  second  year  <A'  Jchonun,  the  son 
of  .lehoshaphat,  king  of  .ludah  ;  the  third  chapter  says 
it  was  in  X\ut  eighteenth  year  of  .Iehosha|)liat  ;  chap, 
viii.  Hi,  is  at  variance  with  botii  these.  Whoever  will 
tak(^  the  trouble  to  compare  the  chronologies  of  the 
kings  of  Judah  and  Israel,  will  find  a  sad  mass  of  con- 

H 


r)S  THE  (JOl)  OF  THE  JEWS; 

fusion  to  clear  up,  and  a  great  disaoreement  in  the  end, 
\vliich  no  one  can   set  right.     2  Kings  viii.  26,   says, 
Ahaziah  was  twenty-two  years  old  when  he  began  to 
reign  ;  2  Chron.  xxii.  2,  says  forty-two  ;  but  his  father 
Jchoram  being  only  thirty-two  years  old  when  he  be- 
gan to  reign,   and  having  reigned  only  eight  years,  the 
son.,  at   this  rate,  must  be  two   years    older  than   the 
father.     Still   further,  all   the   sons  of  .lehoram   were 
carried  away  by  the  IMiilistinesand  Arabians,  2  Chron. 
x.Ki.    17,  save  only  Jehoahaz,   the  youngest.     Chap, 
xxii.    1,   says,   that    "  the   inhabitants   of  Jerusalem 
made  Ahaziah,   his  youngest  son,   king  in   his   stead  : 
for  the  band  of  men  that  came  with  the  Arai)ians  had 
slain    all    the   eldest."     It   appears,    however,    from 
2  Kings  X.  12,   that  Jehu,  king  of  Israel,   put  himself 
to  the  trouble  of  "  slaying"  them   over  again,  regard- 
less of  their  beins:  carried  awav  and  slain  before,   and 
likewise  their  sons,  although  they  had  none.     Ahaziah 
himself  was  also  twice  killed,  once  in  Samaria,   wher<» 
he  was  slain  and  buried,   2  Chron.  xxii.   8,9,  also  at 
^legiddo,  and  buried  at  Jerusalem,   2  Kings   ix.   27. 
Commentators  have   an  easy  way  of  reconciling  mat 
ters.     Jehoahaz  and  Ahaziah  are  the  same  person,  and 
as  for  people  being  killed   twice  or  thrice   ov(>r  in  dif 
ferent  places,  it  is  quite  common  in  revealed  story.     A 
mere  bagatelle^  which  none  but  infidels  would  carp  at. 
2  Chron.  xxi.  12,  Elijah  sent  a  writing  to  Jehoram, 
the  son  of  Jehoshaphat,  king  of  Judah  ;  but  according 
to  2  Kings  ii.  and  iii.  chapters,  Elijah   was  taken  up 
into  heaven  more  than  seven  years  before  that,  at  leasl 
before  the  eighteenth  of  Jehoshaphat.      When  inspired 
writers  tell  us   stories  of  this   nature,  we  cannot  hesi- 
tate a  moment  in  giving  them   all  due  credit.      To 
crown  all   the  other  contradictions,   the  Lord  denies 
having  any  hand   in   the  Mosaic  institution  of  sacrifi- 
ces, Jer.  vii.  22.     "  For  I  spake  not  to  your  fathers, 
nor  commanded  them,  in  the  day  that  I  brought  them 
out  of  the  land  of  Egypt,  concerning  burnt  offerings 
or  sacrifices  :"     Moses  says  the-  very  reverse.     The 


OR,  JEHOVAH  UNVEILED.  50 

very  laws  which  Moses  hud  from  the  mouth  of  the 
Lord  are  contradictory  one  of  another;  Lev.  xviii.  16. 
and  XX.  21,  forbids  the  cohabiting  with,  or  marrying- 
a  brother's  wife  ;  Deut.  xxv.  J,  commands  it.  Lev. 
xix.  34-,  enjoins  eqnal  justice  to  strangers  as  natives. 
"  But  the  stranger  diatdwelleth  with  you  shall  be  unto 
you  as  one  born  among  you,  thou  shalt  love  him  as 
thyself,  for  ye  were  strangers  in  the  land  of  Egypt." 
Chap.  xxv.  4o,  allows  the  enslaving  of  strangers  and 
their  children :  "  Moreover,  of  the  children  of  the 
strangers  that  do  sojourn  among  you,  of  them  shall  ye 
buy  (bondmen  and  bondmaids),  and  of  their  families 
that  arc  witli  you,  which  they  begat  in  your  land,  and 
they  shall  be  your  possession."  But  we  should  never 
have  done  if  we  were  to  notice  every  contradiction 
that  occurs  in  holy  writ ;  we  shall  only  observe,  that 
it  is  vvritino^  in  this  manner  that  constitutes  the  divine 
harmony  of  Scripture,  so  much  insisted  on  by  the 
priesthood. 

We  shall  now  only  take  notice  of  the  nature  of  that 
divine  inspiration  with  whicii  these  writings  were  com- 
posed, an  account  of  which  we  have  in  2  Esdras, 
chap.  xiv.  "  And  the  next  day  a  voice  called  me, 
saying,  Esdras,  0[)cn  thy  mouth,  and  drink  that  I 
give  thee  to  drink.  Then  opened  1  my  mouth,  and 
behold  he  reached  me  a  full  cuj),  which  was  full  as  it 
were  with  water,  but  the  colour  of  it  was  likr;  lire. 
And  I  took  it  and  drank  ;  and  when  1  had  drimk  of 
it,  my  heart  uttcrrd  tnidcrslanding,  and  wisdom  grew 
in  my  breast,  for  my  s|)irit  strcnuthcned  my  memory. 
Arid  my  mouth  was  opened,  and  shut  no  more.  The 
If ighest  gave  understanding  unto  five  men,  and  they 
wrote  the  visions  of  the  night  that  were  told,  which 
they  knew  not  t  and  they  sat  forty  days,  and  lliey 
t\TOte  in  the  <lay,  and  at  ni'^ht  they  ntr.  bread.  As 
for  me  I  spake  in  tlnMlay,  and  1  held  not  my  tongue 
by  night.  In  forty  days  they  wrote  two  hundn  d  and 
four  books.  Anfl  it  came  to  pass  when  the  forty  days 
were   fullilled,  that  the   Highest  spake,    saying,  The 


0()  THE  GOD  OF  THE  JEWS,  &c. 

first  that  thou  hast  written,  publish  openly,  that  the 
worthy  and  unworthy  may  read  it.  But  keep  the 
seventy  last,  that  thou  mayest  deliver  them  only  to 
such  as  are  wise  among  the  people.  For  in  them  is 
the  spring  of  understanding,  the  fountain  of  wisdom, 
and  the  stream  of  knowledge  :  and  I  did  so/'  We 
have  already  shewn  the  matter,  and  this  is  the  manner 
of  composing  a  divinely  inspired  book.  Can  any  one 
then  pretend  that  he  ever  saw  any  thing  like  it  wrote  by 
the  pen  of  man  ! !  ! 


STRICTURES 


ON    THE 


LIVES  OF  THE  JEWISH  SAINTS. 


The  old  proverb  says,  "  a  man  is  known  by  the 
company  he  keeps  ;"  I  know  no  reason  why  the  Lord 
may  not  be  known  in  the  same  manner  ;  with  this 
view  we  offer  the  following  sketches  of  the  lives  of  some 
Jewish  saints,  to  the  consideration  of  the  unprejudiced. 

The  father  of  the  faithful,  and  stock  of  the  holy 
seed,  has  a  fair  claim  for  priority  on  this  list.     Abram, 
the  son  of  Teraii,    a  Chaldean   potter,   lived  with   his 
father  in  Haran   until  his  death,  when  the  Lord  called 
him   away   in  the  one  hundred   and  thirty-fiftii  and  se- 
venty-fifth year  of  his   age  to  a  land  "  that  he  would 
shew  hiin,"   which  land   was   unfortunately  inider  the 
pressure  of  a  grievous  famine  by  the  time;  he  arrived 
at  it;  this  circumstance   laid  him   under  the   necessity 
of  taking  a  jaimt  to  Egypt,   only  a  few  hundred  miles 
further  on.     I  much   (juestion  if  it  was  altogether  fair 
in    the   Lord   to   make  the  patriarch   (piit   his  liome, 
where  he  was  comfortably  settled,  for  a  plac(^  when- he 
conld  not  livr  for  faniin(;?     It  was   in  l\gy|)t  that  I'ha- 
raoh    took   a   likhig    for  Sarai,   who  was  "  a  very  fair 
woman"  at  seventy-fiv(.' ;   this  amour  Abram   did    not 
disdain  to  facilitate  with  a  lie,   and  by  it  he  got  much 
wealth.      At  this  tnin    the  jiatriarch  had   made  no  pro- 
gress  in  the   [)n»pagafion  of  the.    holy  seed;  so  that  in 


0*2  STRICTURES  ON  TUE  LIVES 

an  interview  wliich  he  had  with  the  Lord   in  a  dream, 
after  he  came  back  from  Egypt,  he  told  him,   that  un- 
less he  was   ])cciiHarly  assisted,   his  steward   must  be 
heir  of  all  he  had.     To  prevent  that,    the   Lord  pro- 
mised to  do  something-  for  him,  and  he  should    have 
heirs   of  his   own.     This,    however,    not    being   very 
likely,   considering  his  advanced  age,  required  a  grand 
act  of  faith  to  believe  it,  "  which  was  counted  to  him 
for  righteousness,^'   which  is  the   basis  of  the  sublime 
doctrine   of   imputation,   so    highly   extolled    by    the 
saints.     It  does  not  appear  that    Sarai  considered  this 
promise  as  applicable  to  her,   when  she  gave  her  wait- 
ing-woman  Hagar  to  the  patriarch,  to  be  an  acting 
partner  in  the  holy  business.     It  was  some  time  after 
the  birth  of  Ishmael  before  the  Lord  told  Sarai  that 
she  was  to  be  the  mother  of  the  chosen  people  ;  but  so 
little  faith  had  she,  that  she  laughed  at  it.     During  the 
time  the   holy    seed    was   in   embryo,   the   patriarch 
changed   his    quarters,    "  and   sojourned   in    Gerar." 
Here  again  the  charms  of  the  lovely  Sarai,   at  ninety, 
attracted  the  heart  of  Abimelech,  king  of  the  country, 
to  whom  Abram  told  the  same  story  as  to  Pharaoh  ; 
but  the  Lord  undeceived  the  king  in  a  dream,  and 
"  also  suffered  him  not  to  touch  her;"  so  there  was 
no  harm  done.     This  affair,  however,  cost  Abimelech 
"  sheep  and  oxen,  and  men  servants,  and  women  ser- 
vants,^^   touch  or   not,   besides  a  thousand  pieces   of 
silver,  before  Abraham  prayed ;  and  the   Lord  healed 
Abimelech,    and    removed    the   mysterious    padlock, 
which  he  had  clapped  on  all  the  wombs  in  his  house. 
After  the  birth  of  Isaac,  Sarah  conceived  an  antipathy 
at  Ishmael,  and  desired  Abraham  to  "  cast  him  out,'* 
which  he  was  not  willing  to  do,  until  the  Lord,  out  of 
the  abundance  of  his  tender  mercy,  advised  him  to 
comply  with  the  desire  of  this  cruel  stepmother,  Gen. 
xxi.  12.     The  compliance  of  Abraham  was  perhaps 
the  reason  why  the  Lord  tried  him  with  a  frolic  rather 
serious.     The  command  to  offer  up  his  son  Isaac  as  a 
sacrifice,  was  touching  parental  feelings  in  too  tender  a 


OF  THE  JEWISH  SAINTS.  63 

point.  Although  this  action  of  Abraham's  has  been 
loudlv  extolled  bv  priests,  1  can  see  nothins^  in  it  but 
an  outrage  on  every  feeling  ot  the  heart,  unworthy  of 
a  God  to  propose,  or  a  saint  to  comply  with. 

The  patriarch  Isaac  appears  to  have  been  a  plain 
simple  man,  too  credulous,  and  oftener  the  dupe  than 
the  deceiver;  although  he  attempted  a  fraud  upon 
Abimelech  by  denying  his  wife,  in  imitation  of  his 
father,  yet  he  got  nothing  by  it.  Rebekah  and  Jacob 
both  imposed  on  him  in  a  very  gross  manner,  and  by 
the  superstition  in  which  he  Avas  bred,  he  did  acts  of 
injustice  which  his  lieart  revolted  at. 

Jacob  was  always  a  tricky  rogue.  The  word  signi- 
fies a  cheat.  Esau  told  his  fatlier  he  was  rio;htlv 
named.  Even  before  he  was  born,  "  he  took  his  bro- 
ther by  the  heel  in  the  womb,  and  by  his  strength  he 
had  power  with  God,"  liosea  xii.  2  ;  at  the  time  of 
their  birth  he  did  the  same,  Gen.  xxv.  26.  These 
gambols  are  unknown  in  modern  l)irths,  but  who  can 
doubt  of  them  when  they  have  the  Lord  to  attest  it? 
The  bargain  of  his  brother's  birthright,  which  he  got 
sucli  a  lumping  penny  worth  of,  was  a  very  unfair  trans- 
action ;  and  the  way  he  procured  his  father's  blessinej 
by  lies  and  deceit,  (according  to  the  advice  of  his  mo- 
ther), shews  that  the  saints  do  not  scruple  to  obtain 
their  ends  by  any  means,  it  must  be  owned,  that  the 
most  of  those  wliom  the  church  has  placed  in  heaven 
as  saints,  have  been  the;  greatest  of  villains  on  earth. 
For  these  tricks  he  was  forced  to  go  to  the  country  of 
Padan-aram  to  his  uncle  Laban,  who  beat  him  at  his 
own  weapons,  and  put  the  wrong  sifter  to  bed  to  him 
on  the  wedding-night;  this  mistake  was,  however, 
easily  rectififfl,  as  he  hnd  the  other  at  the  same  rate  of 
service.  Thus  the  ptariarch  had  the  two  sisters  lor 
wives,  and  their  two  maids  for  concubines,  which  in 
our  days  wonlrl  constitute  the  crimes  of  incest,  poly- 
gamy, and  adultery  ;  all  very  necessary  to  form  the 
character  of  a  Je-wish  saint.  The  knavish  scheme  of 
the  hazel  rods,   by  which  he  crot   th*'  best  of  Laban's 


64  STRICTURES  ON  THE  LIVES 

cattle,  was  no  fair  dealing ;  this  trick  has  not,  howevef, 
succeeded   with   any  of  our  swindlers,  the   Lord  not 
blessing  them  the  same  way   as  lu;  did  Jacob.     These 
practices  raised  a  jarring  between  him  and  his  father-in- 
law,   whose  service  he  thought  it  prudent  to  leave,  and 
he  "  stole  away  unawares,"  Rachel  having  first  taken 
her  father's  gods  along  with  her.     Knowing  his  base 
conduct  to  Esau,  upon  his  return  he  thought  it  best  to 
pacify  him  with  a  present,  which  he  dispatched  before- 
hand, as  he  greatly  feared   Esau's   resentment  of  his 
former  knavery.     The  contrast  between  the  characters 
of  the  two  brothers   is  striking.     Jacob  all  submission 
and  dissimulation  :  Esau  forgiving,   open-hearted,  and 
generous.     Upon  his  settlement  in  Shechem,  the  young 
prince  of  the  country  fell  in   love  with   his  daughter 
Dinah,  with  whom  he  had  an  amour,   and   wanted  to 
marry  her  :  this,  however,  not  satisfying  Jacob's  sons, 
they  had  recourse  to  a  scheme  of  black  treachery,  pre- 
tending the  dishonour  it  would  be  to  their  family  for 
their  sister  to  marry  one  that  was  uncircumcised  ;  they 
persuaded  Hamor  and  Shechem  to  comply  with  the 
rite,  whose  example  was  followed  by  all  the  men  of 
the  city.     While  they  were  still  sore,  on  the  third  day, 
Simeon  and  Levi  fell  upon  them,  and  murdered  all  the 
males,   made  their  wives  and  children  prisoners,  and 
robbed  and  plundered  the  whole  town. 

This  action  the  patriarch  regretted,  as  it  would  make 
him  stink  among  the  inhabitants  of  the  country,  who 
might  fall  upon  them,  and  slay  them,  being  few  in 
number.  I  can  see  no  reason  for  this  fear ;  if  two 
men  could  kill  all  the  inhabitants  of  a  city,  the  whole 
family  could  easily  defend  themselves  against  a  few 
country  people.  It  is  to  be  observed,  that  it  is  this 
Levi  that  the  Jewish  Deity  chose  to  be  the  father  of 
his  priesthood,  in  whose  history  this  action  will  shine 
as  a  gem  of  the  first  water.  In  imitation  of  this  holy 
example,  Charlemagne  ordered  four  thousand  Saxons 
to  be  baptized,  and  then  their  throats  to  be  cut. 
Blessed  and  glorious  examples  of  Jewish  and  Chris- 


OF  THE  JEWISH  SAINTS.  65 

tian  piety !  Of  peace  on  earth,  and  good-will  to 
men  ! 

Joshua,  the  successor  of  ISIoses,  was  another  great 
favourite  of  the  Lord's,  by  whose  assistance  he  utterly 
destroyed  all  the  inhabitants  of  Canaan  ;  Avho,  never- 
theless, still  continued  to  live,  and  to  be  thorns  in  the 
side  of  his  people.  He  had  the  address  fo  level  the 
walls  of  Jericho  by  the  blowing  of  rams'  horns,  and 
took  the  citv  bv  mere  noise  ;  which  it  is  well  he  did, 
for  it  does  not  appear  he  had  courage  or  capacity  to 
take  it  in  the  common  method.  An  army  of  six  hun- 
dred thousand  men  must  have  been  the  greatest  cowards 
on  earth,  whose  "  hearts  melted  and  became  as 
water,"  for  the  loss  of  thirty-six  men,  (the  number  that 
fell  before  Ai)  and  their  general  a  mere  Bobadil,  to 
tear  his  clothes,  and  make  such  a  whining  prayer  as 
Joshua  did,  for  so  trifling  a  loss.  The  Lord  upbraided 
Joshua  for  this  piece  of  meanness,  and  told  him  to  get 
up  and  act  like  a  man,  and  not  lie  with  his  face  in  the 
dirt  like  a  pitiful  poltron. 

The  splendid  miracle^  of  stopping  the  course  of  thc: 

'  Miracles  ar«  of  two  kinds  :  knock-down  miracles,  and  probative 
miracles.  The  knock-down  miracles  are  those  which  the  Lord  tin- 
ploys  to  kill  people  at  once;  such  as  the  drowninnf  of  the  Old 
World  ;  the  destruction  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah  by  fire  from  Hea- 
ven;  and  this  of  stoppings  the  course  of  the  sun  and  moon,  to  ati'urd 
the  Jews  light  to  kill  the  C'anaanites.  The  probative  miracles  are 
those  where  w(»nder  passes  fur  argument,  and  astonishment  serves  for 
demonstration.  The  probative  miracle  in  theology  is  the  name  as  an 
experiment  in  natnnij  philosophy  ;  it  is  th<'  miracle  itst-lf  lliat  is  the 
proof  of  the  drictrine,  not  llie  history  of  a  luiraele,  which  are  two 
very  different  things.  We  know  W(;ll  enough  that  there  are  thou- 
sands of  falseluKKis  told  and  written  ev«ry  day,  but  we  never  see  one 
miracle;  if  then  we  were  to  allow  the  history  of  a  miracle  as  much 
weight  as  the  mira<  le  itself,  we  would  risk  a  million  of  chanceH  to 
one,  that  we  were  (Mily  proving  one  falsehood  l)y  another.  In  theo- 
logy, therefore,  the  mir;i<Ie  must  always  be  repe;ite<l,  or  the  doctiiiie 
can  never  be  proved  ;  as  in  philosophy,  the  experiment  must  aiw.iys 
be  performed,  or  the  conclusion  can  never  be  made  good,  nor  the 
pupil  instructed.  If  "  God's  ways  b«  all  eipial,"  he  can  never  give 
one  the  evidf  nee  of  a  miracle  for  his  conviction,  and  allow  another 
no  more  but  only  a  story  about  one. 

I  strongly  suspect  that  it  i8   infidelity  and  want  of  faith  that  pre- 

1 


6C  STRICTURES  ON  THE  LIVES 

sun  and  moon,  stickins^  one  on  the  top  of  a  hill,  and 
making-  the  other  shine  in  the  valley,  was  a  very  extra- 
ordinary achievement.  The  priesthood  have  of  late 
fallen  out  about  this  miracle,  one  party  thinking  it 
much  too  bulky  for  even  faith  itself  to  swallow,  would 
rather  convert  it  into  a  bud  poetic  fiction,  while  the 
other  adhere  tenaciously  to  the  truth  of  the  fact : 
which  last  opinion  we  would  rather  choose  to  follow. 
To  stop  the  course  of  these  immense  globes,  and  un- 
hinge all  nature,  for  the  purpose  of  giving  a  little 
longer  light  to  a  Jewish  brigand  and  his  banditti  to 
rob  and  plunder  the  defenceless  people  of  Canaan,  is 
so  consistent  with  infinite  goodness  and  mercy,  that 
none  but  the  most  hardened  infidels  doubt  it.  How- 
ever, if  the  sun  was  made  to  stand  still  upon  Gibeon, 
I  can  see  no  reason  why  the  moon  might  not  have 
been  suflTered  to  go  about  her  business,  the  light  of  the 
sun  being  generally  sufficient  for  all  our  occasions.  I 
apprehend  that  it  was  not  our  present  sun  and  moon 
that  were  thus  stopped,  but  a  pair  the  Lord  had  lent 
Joshua  for  the  occasion.  I  hope  that  commentators 
will  adopt  this  explication,  which  will  save  them  much 
trouble  when  they  come  to  manufacture  this  passage  in 
future. 

The  Lord  has  many  times  helped  the  fair  sex  at  a  dead 
lift.     Ladies  who  could  not  be  made   pregnant  by  hu- 


vents  the  repetition  of  miracles  in  our  times.  We  know  very  well 
that  every  true  believer  can  cast  out  devils,  speak  all  languages  with- 
out having-  learnt  any,  take  up  serpents,  drink  any  deadly  thing 
without  hurt,  lay  hands  on  the  sick  and  recover  them.  These  are 
the  very  signs  and  criteria  which  follow  them  that  believe,  so  that 
nothing  can  be  more  common,  if  it  were  not  either  carelessness  or 
want  of  faith.  The  saints  of  old  were  perfect  adepts  at  the  working 
of  miracles;  Elijah  could  rain  fire  from  i  leaven  whenever  he  pleased, 
the  same  as  if  he  had  a  Mount  Etna  of  his  own  in  the  air;  others 
had  bears  and  lions,  as  ready  to  worry  those  that  affronted  them  as  if 
they  had  been  driving  a  caravan  of  wild  beasts.  As  for  a  whale  gob- 
bling up  a  prophet,  and  keeping  him  a  day  or  two  in  hh  belly,  it  is  a 
mere  trifle  of  a  miracle. 


OF  THE  JEWISH  SAINTS.  67 

man  means,  have  been  happily  favoured,  after  duly 
seeking  the  Lord  ;  of  which  number  was  the  mo- 
ther of  Samuel.  It  seems  the  Lord,  for  some  unknown 
reason,  had  shut  up  her  womb  ;  this  circumstance  so 
grievously  afflicted  the  good  woman,  that  she  was 
continually  in  tears  about  it  ;  until,  by  an  extraordi- 
nary fit  of  devotion,  she  got  so  far  into  his  good 
graces,  that  "  Elkanah  knew  his  wife,  and  the  Lord 
remembered  her ;"  by  this  means  the  great  prophet 
Samuel  was  begot.  The  Lord's  method  of  opening 
and  shutting  wombs  would  be  a  curious  subject  for 
commentators  to  clear  up. 

Samuel  was  from  his  infancv  initiated  in  all  the  mys- 
teries  of  the  priesthood,  and  conmienced  prophet  at  a 
very  early  age.  The  first  time  we  hear  of  him  acting 
as  a  magistrate,  is  when  he  judged  the  children  of  Is- 
rael in  Mizpeh  ;  the  Philistines,  taking  advantage  of 
this  assemblage,  attacked  them  ;  but  Samuel,  by  offer- 
ing a  sacrifice,  and  crying  unto  the  Lord,  procured 
a  great  thunder-storm  to  be  sent  upon  them,  which  put 
them  entirely  to  the  route.  "  And  they  came  no 
more  into  the  coast  of  Israel :  and  the  hand  of  the 
Lord  was  against  the  l^hilistines  all  the  daysof  Samuel." 
Yet  we  find  tliem  in  the  land  many  times  after  this, 
even  in  the  days  of  Samuel.  See  1  Sam.  xiii.  We 
arc  told  chap,  vii,  1.5,  "  that  Samuel  judged  Israel  all 
the  days  of  his  lite  ;"  we  are  also  assured,  chap.  viii. 
"  When  Samuel  was  old,  that  he  made  his  sons  judges 
over  Israel."  And  tluy  were  deposed  from  their 
office,  and  a  monarchy  establishetl,  because  they 
"  turned  aside  after  lucre,  and  took  bribes,  and  per- 
verted judguHMit."  Ik'sides,  it  doth  not  appear  that 
Samuel  was  an  old  man  when  Saul  was  made  king,  as 
he  lived  during  the  most  of  that  |>rincc's  reign. 

Tiiese  seeming  contradictions  have  proved  a  stum- 
bling block  to  those  who  trust  to  the  light  of  carnal 
reason,  to  guidt;  them  in  their  scriptural  researches  ; 
but  it  is  to  be  observed,  that  a  thing  may  bi;  false  in 
phiiosoj)hy  and  yet  a  divine  truth.      Il"  it  were  affirmed, 


«  STRICTURES  ON  THE  LIVES 

that  two  and  two  make  four,  and  at  the  same  time  do 
not  make  four  ;  tliat  a  thing  can  be  and  not  be,  at  the 
same  time;  that  the  whole  is  greater  than  a  part,  and 
that  a  part  is  as  great  as  the  whole  ;  these  propositions 
would  be  contradictions  in  science  ;  but  it"  they  were 
revealed  in  an  infallible  book,  they  would  then  be  no 
longer  real,  but  only  seeming  contradictions.  This  is 
the  most  approved  method  that  commentators  have  yet 
discovered  of  answering  infidels. 

Whatever  might  be  the  manner  of  Samuel's  judging, 
or  the  nature  of  his  prophetic  powers,  he  has  proved 
no  bad  prophet  of  the  manner  of  a  king,  chap.  viii. 
as  every  one  who  has  the  happiness  to  live  under  the 
government  of  those  blessings  to  society  will  most 
readily  allow.  Samuel,  though  he  judged  Israel,  and 
went  a  circuit,  to  Bethel,  Gilgal,  and  Mizpeh,  yet  it 
doth  not  appear  he  was  known  for  any  more  than  a 
simple  man  of  God  in  the  land  of  Zuph,  who  would 
give  intelligence  concerning  stray  cattle  for  small  gra- 
tuities, it  was  at  a  feast  in  this  place  that  Samuel  dis- 
covered Saul  to  be  a  proper  person  for  being  a  king ;  at 
least  the  Lord  told  Samuel  so,  in  the  ear,  a  day  before  ; 
and  it  is  very  likely  that  Samuel,  who  wanted  to  judge 
Israel  in  reality  all  the  days  of  his  life,  thought  Saul  a 
fit  person  on  whom  to  confer  the  mock  shew  of  royalty, 
and  humour  the  populace. 

Saul,  however,  disappointed  both  their  expectations  ; 
for  though  the  Lord  "  turned  him  into  another  man," 
and  made  him  a  present  of  another  heart,  and  lent  him 
his  spirit,  and  also  made  him  a  prophet,  chap.  x.  yet 
it  was  not  long  before  Saul  acted  foolishly,  and  the 
Lord  had  to  seek  him  a  man  after  his  own  heart,  chap, 
xiii.  13,  and  by  his  mercy  to  Agag,  "  it  repented  the 
Lord  that  he  had  made  him  king  ;"  yet  1  Chron.  x. 
14,  gives  as  the  only  reason  for  turning  the  kingdom  to 
David,  the  affair  of  the  witch  of  Endor.  He  therefore 
took  his  spirit  from  him,  which  he  had  so  kindly  lent, 
and  sent  him  an  evil  one  in  its  place.  Chap.  xvi.  I*. 
To  convince  the  people  of  the  tender  mercies  of  the 


OF  THE  JEWISH  SAINTS.  m 

.1 

Lord,  to  shew  the  benevolent  affections  of  priests  ana 

prophets,  and  that  it  was  no  more  than  a  mock  monarch 
he  intended  should  reign,  Samuel  took  and  "  hewed 
Agag  in  pieces  before  the  Lord  in  Gilgal.  Samuel 
now  came  no  more  to  see  Saul,  until  the  day  of  his 
death  !"  Nevertheless,  he  went  privately  to  David 
and  anointed  him  kins:,  who  turned  out  a  better  friend 
to  priests  and  prophets  than  Saul.  We  hear  very  little 
of  Samuel  after  this,  but  that  he  died,  "  and  all  the  Is- 
raelites were  gathered  together,  and  lamented  him,  and 
buried  him  in  his  house  at  Ramah.  And  David  arose 
and  went  down  to  the  wilderness  of  Paran."  A  plain 
proof  that  Samuel  was  a  promoter  of  the  seditious  and 
treasonable  views  of  David. 

The  fate  of  poor  Saul  was  very  hard.     The   Philis- 
tines, his  constant  enemies,    were  now  gathered  to- 
gether, and  their  force  was  such,    that  he  "  greatly 
trembled.     And  when  Saul  enquired  of  the  Lord,  the 
Lord  answered  him  not,  neither  by  dreams,   nor  by 
Urim,   nor  by   prophets."      Chap,  xxviii.  6,  he  was 
therefore  under  the  necessity  of  having  recourse  to  the 
witch  of  Endor.     The  Lord's  other  wav  of  telling:  the 
story  differs  a  little  from  this  ;  it  was  because  he  asked 
"  counsel  of  one  that  had  a  familiar  spirit,  to  enquire 
of  it,  and  enquired  not  of  the  Lord  :  therefore  he  slew 
him,"    1  Chron.  x.    14.     This   difference   is  of  small 
moment,  although  one  place  says  he  "  enquired  of  the 
Lord,"  and  the  other,  that   he    "  enquired  not  of  the 
Lord  :"  those  who  have  faith  can  believe  both  with  the 
utmost  facility.     The  witch  of  Endor,  by  the  assistance 
of  her  art,  was  successful  in  raising  Samuel  out  of  the 
earth,  to  give  advice  to  Saul  uj)on  this  trying  occasion  ; 
but  the  information  was  of  so  unpleasant  a  nature,  that 
Saul    faint(.'d,    and    became    totally    unfit    for   action. 
"  When   doctors   differ,   who  shall  decide  ?"      Priests 
have  falh'n  out  about  this  story,  one  party  will  have  it 
to  be  Satan,  assuming  the;  appcnirance  of  the  prophet ; 
the  other,  affirmiuj^  it  to  be  Samuel  in  propria  persona  ; 
wc  must  therefore  leave  it  to  the  elect  to  believe  which 


70  STRICTURES  ON  THE  I.IVES 

of  the  ways  they  choose,  or  them  both,  it'  they  be  so 
inehned.  It  is  to  be  observed,  that  it  is  Samuel  him- 
self who  writes  the  story  (according  to  the  determina- 
tion of  the  church)  with  many  others  of  a  similar  stamp, 
equally  amusing  and  diverting. 

We  come  now  to  the  very  climax  of  saintship,  to 
holy  David,  a  king  and  a  saint,  and  a  man  after  God's 
own  heart,^  whose  conduct  we  ought  to  be  very  cau- 
tious in  scrutinizing,  it  being  long  held  impeccable 
both  by  the  Lord  and  the  church,  except  in  the  matter 
of  Uriah  the  Hittite  ;  which  matter,  as  it  is  given  up 
to  the  mercy  of  the  j)rofane  by  both,  we  shall  say 
nothing,  of  not  choosing  to  insult  a  fallen  foe,  or  attack 
a  defenceless  post.  The  first  of  David's  exploits  in  story 
is  his  killing  of  Goiiah,  the  Philistine  giant  and  cham- 
pion, by  a  lucky  blow  with  a  stone.  This  we  allow 
to  be  a  very  gallant  and  splendid  achievement,  for  which 
he  had  the  promise  of  the  king's  daughter  to  wife  ;  but 
Saul  being  much  chagrined  at  the  applause  bestowed 
by  the  women  upon  David's  bravery,  was  rather  tardy 
in  the  fulfilment  of  it.  He  therefore  judged  it  best  to 
put  him  upon  his  mettle,  and  required,  as  a  farther  qua- 
lification for  the  proposed  honour,  that  he  would  bring 
him  an  hundred  foreskins  of  the  Philistines  ;  this  our 
hero  gallantly  performed,  by  bringing  double  the  num- 
ber in  full  tale.  A  curious  and  most  extraordinary 
spectacle  it  must  undoubtedly  have  been,  to  see  the 
Royal  Psalmist  devoutly  employed  in  flaying  the  fallen 
members  of  the  dead  Philistines,  and  gravely  stringing 
them  on  a  piece  of  packthread,  to  bind  round  his  tem- 
ples in  form  of  a  civic  crown,  or  to  wear  them  over  hi.'i 


'  An  English  divine  hath  the  following  comment  on  this  title  of 
David  : — "  David  was  a  man  after  God's  own  heart,  not  in  holiness, 
that  is  not  meant;  for  besides  adultery,  and  murder,  his  many  other 
sins,  as  cursing  his  enemies  to  the  pit  of  Hell,  is  unaccountable  :  but 
nfter  God's  own  heart  is  a  Hebraism,  and  in  English  signifies  as  much 
as  [a  man  for  my  turn.]  He  will  kill  and  slay  as  the  priest  commands 
and  directs." — IJickeringill  on  Priestcraft. 


OF  THE  JEWISH  SAINTS,  71 

shoulder  like  a  sash ;  thus  accoutred  to  enter  the 
royal  presence,  or  to  pay  his  devoirs  to  his  mistress. 
This  marriao-e,  however,  had  not  the  desired  effect  of 
conciliating  matters  ;  for  whatever  was  the  cause,  Saiii 
was  exasperated  more  and  more  against  David,  until  he 
was  obliged  to  fly  the  court. 

It  is  to  be  recollected,  that  the  prophet  Samuel  had 
privately  anointed  David  as  successor  to  the  kingdom, 
previous  to  his  appearance  at  court.  Upon  the  break- 
ing out  of  this  rupture,  David  immediately  set  out  to 
his  old  friend  Samuel,  at  Naioth  in  Ramali,  who  was 
then  busily  employed  in  training  the  young  prophets 
for  service.  Saul  sent  messengers  to  apprehend  Da- 
vid, who  were  immediately  seized  with  the  mania  of 
prophesying  until  he  came  himself,  when  the  disorder 
infected  him  so  violently,  that  hestript  off  his  clothes, 
and  prophesied  naked  a  night  and  a  day. 

We  have  no  clue  to  unravel  the  nature  of  prophesy- 
ings  ;  the  Lord  has  lett  them  in  utter  darkness,  that 
priests  may  find  employment  in  guessing  what  they 
might  be  about.  Inspiration  proceeds  by  fits  and  starts, 
and  by  no  means  is  tied  down  to  the  rules  of  composi- 
tion. The  Pythia  of  Delphos,  and  the  Urim  and 
I'humniim  of  Judea,  spoke  equally  dark  and  unintelli- 
gible enigmas.  After  this,  David,  being  alone,  and 
also  in  company  with  young  men,  called  at  Nob  to  see 
his  iVicnd  Ahimelech  the  priest,  and  get  some  provi- 
sion, wli(^  consented  to  give  him  the  consecrated 
bread,  provided  the  young  men  had  at  least  kept  them- 
selves from  women,  when  it  happily  turned  out  that 
they  had  abstained  for  three  days.  The  j)riests  of  Nob, 
however,  paid  dear  for  their  hos|)itality.  David  now 
wandered  up  and  down  the  country  with  a  band  of 
{'){)()  vagrants  and  malrontents  at  his  heels,  collecting 
provisions  from  th(i  country  jx'ople  ;  or  to  use  a  Scots 
law-plirase,  "  went  a  sorning,''  sending  young  men  with 
a  polite  message,  and  a  deal  of  comj^linunits,  giving  at 
the  same  time  a  broad  hint,   if  refused  his  demands,  he 


72  STRICTURES  ON  THE  LIVES 

noiilcl  "  smite  every  one  that  pissed  against  tlie  wall," 
1)V  next  iiiorninii:. 

This  was  the  way  he  served  Nabal  the  Carmelite, 
Avho  i)eing  a  country  clown,  gave  his  young  men  a  very 
indifferent  reception  ;  which  so  incensed  David,  that 
lie  and  his  band  were  on  the  road  to  pay  Nabal  a  very 
unwelcome  visit,  had  not  his  wife  met  him  with  a 
handsome  present,  being  informed  of  his  intentions  by 
one  of"  the  young  men  :  this  mollified  our  incensed 
hero,  so  that  he  received  the  present,  and  also  "  ac- 
cepted her  person  !"  Wlien  Abigail  returned  home, 
she  found  Nabal  in  his  cups,  so  did  not  think  proper 
to  inform  him  of  what  passed  between  her  and  David 
that  night;  but  next  morning,  by  what  she  told  him, 
and  what  he  probably  guessed,  "  his  heart  died  within 
him,  and  he  became  as  a  stone."  Ten  days  after  this 
the  Lord  smote  the  cliurlish  clown,  and  he  died,  to  the 
mutual  content  of  holy  David  and  Mrs.  Abigail,  who, 
no  doubt,  thanked  the  Lord  for  his  great  kindness  ! 

David's  affairs  turning  critical,  he  thought  it  pru- 
dent to  emigrate  to  Gath,  and  put  himself  under  the 
protection  of  Achish,  who  gave  him  Ziglag  for  an  asy- 
lum ;  where,  instead  of  cultivating  the  arts  of  peace, 
and  attending  to  country  affairs,  his  trade  was  to  rob 
and  murder  the  Geshurites,  the  Gezerites,  and  the 
Amalekites,  pretending  to  Achish  he  was  making  in- 
roads into  his  own  country  ;  for,  "  he  saved  neither 
man  nor  woman  alive  to  bring  tidings  to  Gath." 
Murder,  robbery,  and  falsehood,  make  but  a  small 
speck  in  the  character  of  a  saint,  who  is  "  a  man 
after  God's  own  heart ;"  could  the  priesthood  fix 
crimes  like  these  on  Atheists  or  Infidels,  they  would 
then  be  termed  the  greatest  of  human  atrocities,  but 
when  acted  within  the  pale  of  the  church,  it  is  an  in- 
fallible sign  of  grace,  for  "  where  sin  abounds,  grace 
doth  much  more  abound." 

The  war  which  broke  out  between  the  Philistines 
and  the   Israelites  gave  David  a  fresh  opportunity  of 


OF  THE  JEWISH  SAINTS.  73 

displayinp:  his  saint-like  behaviour,  who  offered  himself 
as  a  volunteer  to  go  and  tight  against  liis  country  :  but 
the  other  J^hilistine  chiefs,  having  no  such  confidence 
in  him  as  Achish,  refused  to  accept  the  services  of  so 
dangerous  an  ally.  He  was  forced  to  turn  back, 
1  Sam.  xxix.  David's  hypocrisy  was  equal  to  his 
other  holy  qualities;  upon  the  defeat  of  the  Israehtish 
army,  and  the  death  of  Saul  and  his  sons  in  battle,  he 
pretended  the  deepest  sorrow,  and  no  less  than  com- 
posed an  elegy  for  them.  David  now  changed  his 
plan  of  operations,  "  he  enquired  of  the  Lord,  saying, 
shall  I  go  up  into  any  of  the  cities  of  Judah  ?  and  the 
Lord  said  unto  him,  Go  up  ;"  when  by  stratagems  of 
one  kind  or  other  he  got  himself  anointed  king  of 
Judah.  During  his  reign  over  Judah,  which  was 
seven  years  and  six  months,  a  civil  war  was  carried  on 
between  the  two  houses  of  Saul  and  David  ;  but  "  the 
house  of  Saul  grew  weaker  and  weaker,"  until  two 
villains,  by  a  grand  act  of  treason,  murdered  Ishbo- 
sheth,  which  put  an  end  to  the  contest. 

David  now  arrived  at  the  zenith  of  power.  He 
was  anointed  king  over  all  Israel  in  Hebron,  by  the 
elders  of  the  [)eople.  He  was  not  long  settled  in  the 
government,  when  he  "  gathered  together  all  the 
chosen  men  of  Israel,  thirty  thousand,"  to  bring  up 
the  ark  of  the  Lord  from  Kirjath-jearim,  besides  a 
goodly  company  of  priests  and  fiddlers.  David 
thought,  no  doubt,  by  this  splendid  show  to  impress 
the  people  witli  sentiments  of  his  extraordinary  piety; 
an  accident,  however,  discovered  his  true  motives, 
which  sufiicieiitiv  imvcils  his  hvpocrisy  to  us.  ]t 
happened  that  Uzzah,  on(^  of  the  drivers,  took  hold  of 
the  ark,  to  prevent  its  I'alli ng,  as  the  oxen  shook  the 
cart.  This  action  of  Uzzah's,  however,  not  pleasing 
the  Lord,  he  smot(^  him,  "  for  his  error;  and  there  he 
died  by  the  a)k  of  (iod,"  2  Sam.  vi.  7.  Hut  I  Chron. 
XV.  1.0,  says,  the  reason  of  his  smiting  Uzzah  was  be- 
cause the  i^evites  did  not  carry  it^^  as  it  w^s  their  duty 

K 


74  STRICTimES  ON  THE  LIVES 

to  have  done*  It  is  no  uncommon  thing  for  the  Lord 
to  smite  one  person  for  another's  fault ;  by  which  he 
proves  hiniseU"  a  Ciod  of  justice  and  equity.  It  is 
upon  this  subhme  principle  that  Christianity  is  founded. 
David  fin(hng  that  there  was  smiting  going  on,  grew 
(hspleased,  and  being  afraid  of  the  Lord,  determined 
not  to  carry  it  a  toot  further  ;  he  wheeled  about,  and 
left  it  at  the  house  of  Obed-edom,  where  it  abode 
three  months.  "  And  it  was  told  king  David,  saying, 
the  Lord  hath  blessed  the  house  of  Obed-edom,  and 
all  that  pertained  unto  him,  because  of  the  ark.'^  Al- 
though David  would  have  no  concern  with  the  ark, 
when  there  were  smiting  in  the  case,  he  no  sooner 
heard  there  were  blessings  to  be  had  by  keeping  it, 
than  he  flew  with  all  speed,  and  took  it  from  poor 
Obed-edom,  who  might  have  made  his  fortune,  if  he 
had  been  allowed  to  keep  it  a  little  longer.  The  carry- 
ing of  it  now  was  not  entrusted  to  profane  hands,  but 
solely  confided  to  the  sanctified  fingers  of  the  Levites, 


'  There  is  something:  singular  in  the  history  of  the  ark.  The 
people  of  Bethshemesh,  notwithstanding:  the  joy  they  expressed 
when  they  fii-st  saw  it,  wanted  to  get  rid  of  it  as  fast  as  possible. 
"  And  the  men  of  Bethshemesh  said,  who  is  able  lo  stand  before 
this  Holy  Lord  God  ?  and  to  whom  shall  he  go  up  from  us  ?"  1  Sam. 
vi,  20.  Yes,  after  smiting  50,070  men,  he  and  his  ark  might  go 
where  they  pleased.  They  accordingly  sent  messengers  to  the  men 
of  Kirjath-jearim  to  come  and  fetch  it  away,  which  they  did,  where  it 
lay  neglected,  without  any  one  caring  about  it,  1  Chron.  xiii.  3,  for 
twenty  years,  according  to  1  Sam.  vii.  2;  but  as  this  transaction 
must  have  taken  place  previous  to  Saul's  accession  to  the  throne,  and 
his  reign  was  forty  years,  and  David  only  brought  it  away  after  he 
ascended  the  throne  of  all  Israel,  it  must  have  remained  near  fifty 
-years  in  Kirjath-jearim.  We  see  that  the  smiting  of  50,070  men 
made  the  men  of  Bethshemesh  call  him  Holy  Loid  God  ;  and  it  is 
because  the  history  is  stufled  with  blunders  and  contradictions,  that 
•we  term  it  Holy  A\  rit !  \\  hen  Solomon  lodged  the  ark  in  the  tem- 
ple, all  the  precious  ware  it  contained  was  only  the  two  tables  of 
stone,  1  Kings  viii.  9.  1  Chron.  v.  10,  although  Aaron  had  put  up  a 
pot  of  manna  along  with  them.  In  St.  Paul  s  time  it  contained  a 
j^olden  p<)t  with  manna,  and  Aaron's  rod  that  budded,  besides  the 
two  tables.  Heb.  ix.  4. 


OF  THE  JEWISH  SAINTS.  73 

who  brought  it  safe  home  without  any  further  accident. 
David  played  a  principal  character  in  this  second  pro- 
cession ;  he  danced  and  leaped  "  before  the  Lord  with 
all  his  might,"  in  such  indecent  and  obscene  attitudes, 
uncovering  himself  "  as  one  of  the  rain  fellows  shame- 
lessly uncovereth  himself,"  that  he  gave  great  offence 
to  his  wife  INlJchal,  who  reproved  him  for  such  scan- 
dalous behaviour ;  but  she  might  have  spared  herself 
the  pains,  for  David  told  her  "  he  would  be  more  vile 
than  thus,  and  base  in  his  own  sight:  and  of  the  maid- 
servants, whom  she  had  spoken  of,  of  them  should  he 
be  had  in  honour."  This  story  contains  a  beautiful 
picture  of  true  religion,  piety,  and  decency ! 

David,  finding  there  were  blessings  to  be  got  by  the 
possession  of  the  ark,  thought  it  would  be  no  bad 
scheme  to  build  a  house  for  the  Lord  ;  but,  though  he 
"  was  with  him  whithersover  he  went,"  yet  having 
"  shed  blood  abundantlv,"  he  would  not  suffer  him  to 
build  a  house  to  his  name.  A  piece  of  great  incon- 
sistency in  the  Lord,  who  is  God  of  battles  !  and 
"  who  makes  the  fowls  drunk  with  the  blood  of  princes." 
David,  however,  drew  out  a  plan  of  the  building, 
and  prepared  vast  materials  ;  he  also  left  Solomon  one 
hundred  thousand  talents  of  gold,  and  one  million 
talents  of  silver  ;  1  Chron.  xxii.  14  ;  besides  this  he 
gave,  as  a  private  donation,  three  thousand  talents 
of  gold,  and  seven  thousand  talents  of  silver ;  the 
princes  of  Israel  also  made  a  collection  of  five  thousand 
tal(,'nts  and  ten  thousand  drams  of  gold,  and  ten  thou- 
sand talents  of  silver,  eighteen  thousand  talents  of 
brass,  and  one  hundred  thousand  talents  of  iron,  chap, 
x.xix.  4-,  7  ;  an»ou)itiiit;in  the  whole  to  seven  hundred  and 
eighty  millioMs  sterling.  The  Lord  nmst  undoubtedly 
have  given  David  the  most  of  this  sum  out  of  his  in- 
exhaustible treasure  ;  it  is  not  to  Ix-  suj)posed,  that 
robbing  a  few  (iezerites,  (Jeshurites,  or  Amalekites, 
could  |)rodure  niucli  tnoniy.  I'liere  is  not  so  much  on 
the  face  of  the  earth  ;  but  the  stories  related  in  a  divine 


7«  STRICTURES  ON  THE  LIVES 

history  must  Air  exceed  the  bounds  of  credibility,  or 
cJse  they  could  have  no  attractions  for  faitii. 

David,  when  an  exiled  vagrant,  used  to  subsist  by 
robbery  and  murder  ;  now  that  he  is  raised  to  the  re- 
gal dignity,  practises  cruelty,  and  injustice  by  legal 
methods,  and  murders  people  by  geometrical  rules,  and 
with  mathematical  precision.  "  And  he  smote  Moab, 
and  measured  them  with  a  line,  castinij  them  down  to 
the  ground  :  even  with  two  lines  measured  he  to  put 
to  death,  and  with  one  full  line  to  keep  alive  ;  and  so 
the  Moabites  became  David's  servants,  and  brought 
gifts/*  9  Sam.  ii.  2.  Who  could  refuse  presents  to  a 
prince  of  such  unbounded  clemency  ? 

Unfortunately  the  number  of  those  who  hated  him 
without  a  cause  were  more  than  the  hairs  of  his  head  ; 
and,  poor  man,  he  was  sometimes  forced  to  restore 
that  which  he  took  not  away/     Psal.  Ixiv.  4. 

David  in  warring  with  JIadadezer  king  of  Zobah, 
took  from  him  one  thousand  chariots,  seven  hundred 
horsemen,  and  twenty  thousand  footmen  ;  he  houghed 
all  the  chariot  horses,  except  so  many  as  would  serve 
for  one  hundred  chariots,  he  likewise  slew  of  the 
Syrians,  who  were  the  allies  of  Hadadezer,  twenty-two 
thousand  ;  at  another  smiting  in  the  valley  of  Salt  he 
slew  eighteen  thousand  Syrians  more,  2  Sam.  chap, 
viii.  At  another  time,  (for  the  inspired  historian  dis- 
dains every  thing  that  looks  like  chronology,)  "  David 
slew  the  men  of  seven  hundred  chariots  of  the  Syrians, 
and  forty  thousand  horsemen,"  chap.  x.  18.  The 
books  of  Chronicles  difFcr  in  these  articles,  1  Chron. 
xviii.  4,  magnifies  the  number  of  horsemen  taken  from 
Hadadezer  to  seven  thousand,  and  calls  them  eighteen 
thousand  Edomites,  whom  Abishai  slew  in  the  valley 
of  Salt ;  the  Hebrew  title  of  the  Ixth  Fsalm  makes  them 


'  We  are  notable  lo  comprehend  how  a  person  tan  "  restore  that 
which  he  took  not  away ;"  it  is  truly  enigmatical. 


OF  THE  JEWISH  SAINTS.  ^ 

only  twelve  thousand  Edomites  whom  Joab  slew  ; 
chap.  xix.  18,  calls  them  forty  thousand  footmen, 
whom  David  slew.  A  few  jarrings  in  an  infalHble 
book  establishes  its  divine  original  beyond  a  doubt, 
because  the  writers,  according  to  the  logic  of  the  church, 
could  not  lie  by  consent  ! 

Undoubtedly  this  is  one  of  the  best  arguments  the 
church  is  in  possession  of;  nothing  can  be  more  ob- 
vious. That  the  God  of  truth,  who  knoweth  all 
things,  should  inspire  different  writers,  to  tell  the  same 
storv  different  ways,  so  as  to  contradict  each  other ; 
and'  thus  prevent  all  suspicion  of  lying.  It  is  sur- 
prising that  infidels  should  remain  blind  to  the  force  of 
this  argument. 

David  was  now  warmly  employed  in  smiting  and 
slaying  his  neighbours,  although  the  Lord  "  had  given 
him  rest  round  about  from  all  his  enemies."  When  he 
took  Rabbah,  he  was  very  ingenious  at  contriving  new 
methods  of  torture  for  the  unfortunate  mhabitants. 
"  And  he  brought  forth  the  people  that  were  therein, 
and  put  them  under  saws  and  under  harrows  of  iron, 
and  under  axes  of  iron,  and  made  them  pass  through 
the  brick  kiln  :  and  thus  did  he  unto  all  the  cities  of 
the  children  of  Ammon,"  2  Sam.  xii.  31.  This  con- 
duct is  entirely  comformable  to  the  character  of  those 
who  are  under  the  inlluonce  of  the  true  religion.  The 
tree  is  known  by  its  fruit. 

"  Then  there  was  a  famine  in  the  davs  of  David 
three  years,  year  after  year,  and  David  enquired  of 
the  Lord.  And  tlu'  liOrd  answered,  it  is  for  Saul  and 
for  his  bloody  house,  because  he  sl(>w  the  (jibeouites," 
2  Sam.  xxi.  I.  if  we  were  to  judge  of  this  history  l)y 
the  same  rules  that  we  juflg(i  of  other  histories,  we 
might  very  possibly  conclude,  that  this  enfjuiring  of 
the  Lord,  and  the  answer  the  Lord  gave,  was  uolliing 
more  than  a  base  juggle  between  the  jiriests  and  David, 
in  order  to  palliate  the  murder  of  Saul's  inncx'eut  <le- 
•icendants.      But,  being  under   no  such  carnal    obliga- 


78  STIUCTIJKES  ON   JllE  LIVES 

tions,  we  slinll  proceed   upon  the   same  divine  princi- 
ples as  the  liistory  is  wrote  on. 

It  is  a  thing  indubitably  certain,  that  no  man  is 
chargeable  with  the  actions  of  another,  over  whom 
he  has  no  controul.  l*or  the  Lord,  therefore,  to  send 
a  famine  on  the  Israelites,  in  the  days  of  David,  for 
the  actions  of  Saul,  must  be  divine  justice;  because 
it  is  a  direct  violation  of  natural  equity.  The  reasons 
that  fhe  Lord  "ives  for  scndini;-  this  famine  are  some- 
thing  odd  ;  viz.  "  for  Saul,  and  for  his  bloody  house, 
because  he  slew  the  Gibeonites."  Now,  if  the  Lord 
be  an  accurate  historian,  the  house  of  David  was  much 
more  bloody  than  that  of  Saul  ;  the  Lord  even  refused 
to  let  him  build  the  temple,  "  because  he  had  shed 
blood  abundantly."  As  to  Saul's  slaying  the  Gibeon- 
ites,  it  is  no  where  recorded  by  the  Lord  in  his  history  ; 
the  next  verse  says,  that  he  only  "  sought  to  slay 
them.^'  We  are  also  left  to  guess  at  what  period  of 
David's  reign  this  famine  took  place  ;  these  omissions 
have  given  occasion  to  sceptics  for  starting  a  great  many 
captious  questions,  which  are  happily  unanswerable  by 
human  intellect.  Obscurity  and  confusion  are  indis- 
pensibly  requisite  in  a  sacred  history,  to  confound  the 
imgodly  in  their  profane  researches  into  divine  mystery, 
to  destroy  the  wisdom  of  the  wise,  and  to  bring  to  no- 
thing the  understanding  of  the  prudent,  as  well  as  to 
give  constant  employment  to  priests  and  commentators  ; 
to  obscure  natural  light  by  revealed  darkness,  and  to 
make  revealed  darkness  spiritually  light;  whose  works, 
like  the  w^orld,  poised  on  nothing,  are  supported  upon 
*•'  the  baseless  fabric  of  a  vision." 

David,  after  having  enquired  of  the  Lord,  consulted 
with  the  Gibeonites  what  he  should  do  for  them,  who 
very  modestly  and  humanely  required  seven  of  Saul's 
sons  to  be  given  them,  to  "  hang  up  unto  the  Lord." 
This  just  demand  David  graciously  complied  with, 
and  delivered  unto  them  two  sons  of  Rispah,  and  five 
sons  of  his  own  wife  ^lichal,  which  she  bare  to  Adrici 


OF  THE  JEWISH  SAINTS'.  79 

the  Meholothitc,  her  former  husband,  verse  S.  The 
Lord  forgets  himself  a  httle  here,  (hut  infinite  wisdom 
makinq^  gross  blunders  is  so  common,  that  we  think 
nothing  of  it.)  It  was  Merab  the  eldest  daughter  that 
was  married  to  Adriel.  1  Sam.  xviii.  19.  Michal,  in- 
deed, was  taken  from  David  and  married  to  Phalti  the 
son  of  Laish,  chap.  xxv.  44< ;  but  restored  to  him  again, 
2  Sam.  iii.  IJ,  Ki  ;  besides,  she  never  had  a  child, 
chap.  vi.  ^rl.  Seriously,  if  it  were  possible  for  igno- 
rance and  folly  to  blaspheme  the  Supreme  Being,  it 
were  the  highest  degree  of  it  to  father  such  blunders 
and  absurdities  on  omnipotence. 

"  And  thev  hauGjcd  them  in  the  hill  before  the 
Lord."  It  does  not  require  a  vast  fund  of  sagacity  to 
discover  how  the  Gibeonites  came  to  make  this  holy 
demand  ;  we  have  only  to  recollect,  that  thej^  were  a 
kind  of  understraj)pers  to  the  priesthood,  and  we  know 
the  connection  that  subsisted  between  holy  David  and 
that  fraternity  ;  this  clue  will  unravel  the  whole  mys- 
tery. "  And  after  that  God  was  entreated  for  the  land." 
It  is  happy  for  our  holy  religion,  that  heathenism  can 
boast  of  no  such  doin2:s  as  these  among  their  gods  and 
heroes  :  if  it  could,  inhdels  might  bring  them  forward 
as  proofs  of  the  truth,  justice,  goodness,  and  holiness 
of  their  characters  ;  in  that  case  the  church  might  l)e 
sorely  jjuzzled  to  answer  iheir  arguments,  being  so  very 
like  her  own. 

David  was  also  the  sweet  singer  of  Israel,  and  com- 
posed many  godly  ballads,  and  spiritual  songs  ;  some 
of  which  discover  the  character  of  the  author  very 
|)liiiiily.  'Ihe  f;ixth  is  an  excellent  model  of  holy 
cursing,  while  the  xxxviiith  most  pathetically  d(!scribes 
the  nature  of  that  dist("mper,  whicii  sometimes  proves 
a  disagreeable  alk)y  to  the  loves  of  the  saints.  The 
elect  have,  howevc.T,  taken  this  cytherean  lament  for  a 
divine  allegorv  on  the;  spiritual  dist(^mper  of  souls  ;  the 
same  song  suits  (!(|ually  the  ]:>ain  of  a  venereal  ulcer, 
and  the  pangs  of  the  new  inrth  ;  so  accommodating  is 
inspiration  to  the  ideas  of  the  vulgar. 


$0  STRICTURES  ON  THE  LIVES 

"  Now  the  days  of  David  drew  u\'j;h,  that  he  should 
die;"  but  as  he  "did  that  which  was  right  in  the 
eyes  of  the  LortI,  and  turned  not  aside  from  any  tiling 
that  he  commanded  him  all  the  days  of  liis  life,  save 
only  in  the  matter  of  Uriah  the  llittite/'  he  liad  no 
occasion  of  repenting  that  he  "  had  shed  blood  abun- 
dantly:"  or  of  forgiving  his  enemies  :  actions,  which 
we  sometimes  find  even  saints  performing  at  their 
death.  He  was  not  one  of  the  unhappy  virtuous, 
wlio  need  the  consolatory  hope  of  a  future  recom- 
pence  ;  he  therefore  gave  himself  no  concern  about  it, 
but  finished  a  life  of  unparalleled  iniquity  by  unfeeling 
obstinacy. 

rhus  have  we  taken  a  cursory  view  of  the  life  of 
David,  who  is  held  upas  a  standard  of  saintship,  whose 
conduct  in  the  government  of  the  Jewish  nation  was 
the  model  by  which  all  future  princes  were  to  regulate 
theirs.  Those  who  "  walked  in  the  ways  of  David" 
were  sure  of  giving  satisfaction  to  the  Lord,  and  to  be 
well  pleasing  in  his  sight ;  others  who  deviated  from  so 
pious  an  example,  were  constantly  provoking  him  to 
anger.  If,  however,  we  were  to  con) pare  the  actions 
of  holy  David  with  the  Neros  and  Caligulas  of  anti- 
<jnity,  we  should  be  necessitated  to  give  the  preference 
to  the  Jew  :  if  the  Lord  had  not  made  him  a  saint, 
the  world  would  have  declared  him  a  monster. 

If  we  be  inclined  to  form  an  impartial  estimate  of 
David's  character,  we  must  attend  to  some  circum- 
stances that  deserve  our  notice.  Absalom,  by  his  en- 
gaging address  and  attention  to  th(i  suits  of  the  people, 
stirred  up  a  most  formidal)le  rebellion,  and  provoked 
a  revolt  so  general,  that  David  found  it  necessary  to 
ouit  his  capital.  Nothing  could  be  more  abhorrent 
to  the  feelings  of  a  people,  than  to  see  a  son  rise  in 
rebellion  au<l  dethrone  his  father;  his  government 
must  therefore  have  been  of  the  most  tyrannic  kind 
that  enabled  Absalom  to  find  partizans  so  universally. 
\'v'e  are  inclined  to  think  the  character  given  him 
by  Shemei  to   be  pretty  just.     Holy  Davids  and  wise 


OF  THE  JEWISH  SAINTS.  81 

Solomons  may  be  very  good  kings  for  the  priesthood, 
and  yet  be  very  bad  ones  for  the  people. 

It  might  be  deemed  unpardonable  to  bring  forward 
this  great  Bible  hero  withont  proper  attendants,  we 
shall  therefore  select  as  squire  tor  our  holy  Quixote, 
Jehu,  king  of  Israel,  who  will  make  a  very  proper 
Sancho  Pancho  to  this  saint-errant  and  Nero  of  the 
Hebrews.  Like  him,  he  did  that  which  was  right  in 
the  eves  of  the  Lord,  accordin"-  to  all  that  was  in  his 
heart,  2  Kings  x.  ;30.  This  history  of  Jehu  will  also 
illustrate  the  Lord's  character,  and  shew  his  cruelty 
and  injustice  better  perhaps  than  any  other  fact  in  the 
Bible.  "  Elisha  the  prophet  called  one  of  the  chil- 
dren of  the  prophets,'^  and  ordered  him  to  go  and 
anoint  Jehu,  king  of  Israel,  at  llamoth  Gilead.  This 
prophet  thought  it  no  crime  to  be  guilty  of  high  trea- 
son, get  the  reigning  prince  and  royal  family  mur- 
dered, and  place  an  usurper  on  the  throne,  all  to  re- 
venge the  blood  of  some  unknown  prophets,  of  whom 
we  have  no  account.  The  young  prophet  went  and 
executed  his  commission.  The  murdering  instructions 
he  gave  to  Jehu  were  ample:  "  Thou  shr.lt  smite  the 
house  of  Ahab  thy  master.  For  the  whole  house  of 
Ahab  shall  perish  ;  aiirl  1  will  cut  off  from  Ahab  him 
that  pisselh  against  the  wall,  and  him  that  is  shut  up 
and  left  in  Israel."  Chap.  ix.  We  sometimes  hear  an 
apophthegm  in  the  mouths  of  the  righteous,  "  that  we 
should  never  do  evil  that  good  may  come  of  it;"  but 
what  are  we  to  think  of  the  Lord,  who  stirs  up  one 
villain  to  destroy  nnolhir,  and  massacre  the  innocent, 
without  any  good  coming  out  of  it  ? 

No  sooner  was  Jehu  anointed  king  by  the  juvenile 
prophet,  than  he  and  his  band  of  conspirators  flew  to 
attack  king  Jehoram,  who  was  lying  ill  at  Jezreei  of 
his  wounds.  The  king  being  apprehensive  of  danger, 
came  out  on  the  road  in  his  chariot,  along  with  Aha- 
ziah  king  of  Judah,  to  meet  Jehu,  and  know  his  de- 
mands;  him  Jehu  killed  wrtb  his  own  hand,  and  his 
gang  mortally   wounded  Ahaziah.     When  he  entered 

L 


82  STRICTURE?  ON  THE  I.IVES 

the  city,'  Jezebel,  the  king's  mother,  was  thrown  out 
of  a  window,  and  trod  todeatli  by  liis  liorses.  Then 
he  wrote  to  the  nobles  of  Samaria,  who  had  the  charge 
of  the  king's  sons,  "  being  seventy  persons,"  them 
they  murdered,  and  packed  up  their  heads  in  baskets, 
and  sent  them  to  Jehu,  who  ordered  them  to  be  piled 
up  in  two  heaps  at  the  entering  in  of  tiie  gate,  for  the 
people  to  view.  Having  dispatched  all  the  king's 
sons,  "  Jehu  slew  all  that  remain(>d  of  the  house  of 
Ahab  at  Jezreel,  and  all  his  great  men,  and  his  kinsfolk, 
and  his  priests,  until  he  left  him  none  remaining." 
Chap.  X.  1 1. 

Going  to  Samaria,  he  met  on  the  way  forty-two 
young  princes  of  Judah,  the  brethren  of  Ahaziah, 
verse  14-,  who  were  only  his  nephews,  SChron.  xxii. 
8,  1,  If  two  inspired  writers  were  to  relate  a  story 
the  same  way  without  contradicting  each  other,  it 
might  then  be  said  that  they  lied  by  consent.  Them 
he  instantly  murdered.  When  he  arrived  at  Samaria, 
"  he  slew  all  that  remained  unto  Ahab"  there.  Then 
under  the  pretence  of  a  great  sacrifice  to  Baal,  he  com- 
manded all  the  adherents  of  that  sect  to  attend,  under 
pain  of  death,  prophets  and  priests;  and  having  got 
the  house  as  full  as  it  could  hold,  he  had  them  all 
foully  and  inhumanly  massacred. 

Can  history  afford  a  parallel  to  such  abominable 
cruelty  ?  The  prescriptions  of  Sylla  and  Marius  fall 
infinitely  short  of  it;  and  the  united  cruelties  of  Robe- 
spierre, Carrier,  and  Joseph  Le  Bon,  can  never  stand  a 
comparison,  and  yet  we  are  taught  to  look  upon  these 
men  as  the  most  abominable  ruffians  that  ever  lived. 
What  then  must  be  our  astonishment  when  we  hear  a 
God  of  peace  and  mercy,  approving  of  such  atrocious 
wickedness  ?  "  And  the  Lord  said  unto  Jehu,  be- 
cause thou  hast  done  well  in  executing  that  which  is 
right  in  mine  eyes,  and  hast  done  unto  all  the  house  of 
Ahab  according  to  all  that  was  in  mine  heart,  thy 
children  of  the  fourth  generation  shall  sit  on  the 
throne  of  Israel. '^ 


OF  THE  JEWISH  SAINTS.  83 

But  although  Jehu  pleased  the  Lord  by  murder  and 
massacre,    he  cared  as  little   for  his   worship  as  any  of 
his  predecessors.     "  Howbeit,   from  the  sins  of  Jero- 
boam, the  son  of  Nebat,  who  made  Israel  to  sin,  Jehu 
departed  not  from  after  them,  to  wit,  the  golden  calves 
that  were  in  iJethel,  and  that  were  in  Dan."  Verse 29, 
50.     Thus,  after  all  this  cruelty  and  mischief,  the  Lord 
was  no  better  served  than  ever.      What  becomes  of  the 
foreknowledge  of  Ciod  ?     Could  he  not  select  a  person 
to  fill  the  throne  that  would  promote  his  worship?    Or 
are  we  to  look  uj)on  it  as  a  thing  impossible  to  worship 
a  God  of  such   a  character  ?     Let  us  then   beware  of 
imitating    the  conduct   of    men    after    "  God's    own 
heart ;"  none  ever  assume  such   titles   but  the  most 
profligate  villains  and  monsters  in  human  shape. 

We  have  Jiow  taken  a  review  of  the  actions  of  the 
most  eminent  men  in  the  Jewish  history;  what  do 
thi.y  present  to  view  but  the  chiefs  of  a  gang  of  ban- 
ditti, totally  destitute  of  virtue  or  morality,  immersed 
ill  ignorance  and  barbarism,  and  living  in  a  state  of  the 
most  savage  ferocity  ?  Let  us,  for  a  moment,  compare 
them  with  the  illustrious  men  of  Greece  or  Rome,  we 
shall  then  see  the  value  of  Bible  morality,  and  know 
how  far  tiuir  saints  are  fit  patterns  of  imitation  for 
civilized  Europe. 


RElMARKS 


ON    THE 


THEOCRACY. 


Civil  Goveriimciit  necessarily  arises  out  of  the 
nature  of  society;  to  judge  of  its  perfection,  it  is  ne- 
cessary to  know  its  ultimate  object,  and  the  end  it  has 
in  view.  The  object  which  the  science  of  government 
seeks  to  attain,  is,  beyond  a  doubt,  "  the  promoting 
the  greatest  possible  quantity  of  happiness  to  the  com- 
munity/' Salus  popiili  lex,  "  or  the  public  welfare, 
the  supreme  law,"  has  been  a  maxim  in  every  nation 
that  ever  existed.  In  proportion,  then,  as  a  govern- 
ment is  capable  of  procuring  the  greatest  number  of 
advantages  with  the  fewest  inconveniencies,  it  ap- 
proaches perfection.  That  man  is  a  creature  of  habit, 
is  now  known  ;  and  that  the  religion  and  government 
under  which  he  lives  influence  his  conduct,  and  make 
him  contract  habits  of  virtue  or  vice,  is  also  unfjues- 
tionable.  These  two  great  springs  of  human  action 
ever  have,  and  ever  will,  continue  to  form  the  man- 
ners and  character  of  a  nation.  The  proof  of  this 
truth  is  easy  from  history  :  whoever  will  take  the 
trouble  to  compare  the  characters  of  the  ancient  Greeks 
and  Romans  with  that  of  their  modern  descendants,  will 
easily  perceive  the  vast  diflerence  that  is  to  be  found 
between   them  to  be  entirely  owing  to  the  different 


REMARKS  ON  THE  THEOCRACY.  85 

systems  of  religion  and  government  under  which  they 
respectively  lived. 

These  principles  kept  in  view  will  enable  us  to  form 
a  iudsraent  of  the  nature  of  the  Jewish  theocracy,  if 
carnal  reason  be  allowed  to  judge  of  so  divine  a  govern- 
ment. Of  the  many  various  and  different  forms,  for 
which  mankind  have  contended  so  earnestly,  that 
surely  hath  a  fair  claim  for  preference,  in  which 
the  Author  of  our  being  condescends  to  become  our 
lawgiver  and  magistrate.  If  there  do  exist  a  Being, 
destitute  of  human  passions,  and  possessed  of  iniinite 
Justice,  wisdom,  and  power,  it  were  to  be  wished  he 
would  take  upon  him  the  charge  of  governing  the 
whole  human  race.  1  am  sure  their  affairs  have  been 
sadly  managed  by  those  who  have  governed  them 
hitherto.  1  know  it  is  the  opinion  of  philosophers, 
that  no  government  ever  existed,  or  can  exist,  but  of 
men  :  priests  have  affirmed,  that  a  theocracy  may 
exist,  if  they  are  to  be  its  administrators  ;  and  that  the 
Jewish  orovernment  was  one.  To  save  all  altercation 
on  this  head,  we  shall  allow  it  to  be  as  they  say  :  all 
we  mean  to  do  is  only  to  examine  the  nature  of  it,  and 
see  what  sort  of  government  it  was. 

It  would  not  be  using  the  Lord  with  the  respect  due 
to  so  great  a  personage,  to  place  him  at  the  head  of 
their  affairs,  while  they  were  slaves  to  Pharaoh.  The 
commencement  of  the  theocracy  must  therefore  bo 
fixed  at  the  time  the  Israelites  left  Egypt ;  when  the 
Lord  brought  them  up  by  "•  mighty  wonders  and  a 
strong  h-.uid."  The  Israelites  had  at  this  time  six 
hundred  thousand  fightnig  men.  Had  these  lellovvs 
been  animated  with  the  sjjirit  of  liberty,  they  could 
easily  have  cut  their  way  out  of  Kgypt,  without  i)ut- 
ting  th('  Lord  to  the  expence  of  "  mighty  wonders  :" 
but  a  mob  of  poltrons  needed  to  be  aniniated  with  the 
miracle  of  the  ten  plagues.  SeoHers  ha\e  mad(!  theni- 
selves  very  merry  with  these  ten  plagues;  they  obstMve, 
if  they  were  no  lH;tt<r  perf^rmi  fl  tlimi  is  rehiterl,  they 
must  have   been    below   the   performances   ol   IJoaz  Of 


8G  REMARKS  ON  Tllli  Til L:0(  RACY. 

Bivslaw.'  Tlu'y  take  notice,  tliat  it'  Moses  had  turned 
all  tlic  water  into  blood,  as  is  atiirnied,  the  magicians 
could  not  have  done  so  likewise,  as  they  had  no  water 
let't  to  be  turned  into  blood.  They  atVect  to  j^ity  the 
late  of  the  Egyptian  cattle,  who  were  all  killed  by  a 
murrain,  then  smitten  with  blains  ;  killed  a  second 
time  bv  a  storm  ot"  hail  ;  a  third  time  at  the  death  of 
the  iirsl-born  ;  and,  lastly,  tliey  were  drowned  in  the 
lied  sea.  This  was  too  severe  treatment  ot"  the  poor 
beasts.  J3ut  we  will  retail  no  more  ot"  the  cavils  of 
these  scofters,  who  woidd  never  have  done,  if  they 
were  induiiied. 

The  Lord  having  got  his  people  fairly  out  of  Egypt, 
conducted  them  into  that  best  of  all  possible  countries, 
the  deserts  of  Arabia,  where  they  wandered  about 
forty  years  in  great  want  of  water,  bread,  food  for 
their  cattle,  and  most  of  the  articles  of  the  first  neces- 
sity. The  distresses  and  hardships  they  suffered  in 
the  wilderness  were  the  cause  of  many  discontents  and 
murmurs  breakins:  out  amongst  them.  Instead  of  the 
Lord  foreseeing  their  wants,  and  providing  for  their 
relief,  their  murmurings  ordy  provoked  him  to  anger, 
and  put  him  in  a  rage.  Instead  of  enlightening  their 
understandings,  or  making  them  comprehend  the  na- 
ture of  their  situation,  they  are  wholly  actuated  by 
a  blind  force,  which  disjoints  and  deranges  every 
spring  of  human  action.  With  them  miracles  and 
l)rodigies  are  more  common  than  ordinary  events.  In 
such  a  situation,  men  cannot  regulate  their  conduct  by 
the  known  relation  between  cause  and  eflect ;  for  that 
is  entirely  destroyed  ;  the  influence  of  motives  is 
wholly  done  away,  and  men  in  such  circumstances  are 
nothing  more  than  j)assive  instruments  in  the  hand 
tliat  guides  them.  If  the  Lord  be  "  an  infinitely  wise 
being,"  (as  the  church  declares  him  to  be)  that  has  made 
every  thing  very  good,  in  the  best  {)Ossiblc  manner,  and 


'  Two  famous  bli^lit-ol-liand  peifunni.!!). 


REMARKS  ON  THE  THEOCRACY.  87 

can  afterwards  infringe  his  own  law,  and  work  a  mira- 
cle, tlien  there  can  be  no  occasion  for  rewards  and 
punishments  ;  the  one  wonld  no  longer  deter  from 
vice,  nor  the  other  incite  to  virtue. 

When   the  Loid  wrought   so  many  miracles  on  the 
inanimate  objects  that  surrounded  his  chosen  people,   it 
would  have  been  proper  to  have  performed  another  on 
their  understandings,  and  so  have  suited  their  minds  to 
their  circumstances,  and   made   one  grand  miracle  of 
the  whole.     Not  being   able  to  do  this,  we   find  him 
havino;  recourse  to  violence,  to  tvrannv,  and  to  massa- 
ere.     The  cruel  excesses  of  tyrants  have  produced  the 
most  revolting  sensations  in  every  human  breast,  but 
the  most  enormous  that  ever  was  heard  of  in  any  other 
country   under  heaven,  comes  infinitely  short  of  the 
following  atrocious  order  :  "  Then  Moses  stood  in  the 
gate  of  the  camp,  and  said,  who  is  on  the  Lord's  side? 
let  him  come   unto  me  ;  and  all  the  sons  of  Levi  ga- 
thered themselves  together   unto  him.     And  he  said 
unto  them,   thus  saith   the   Lord  God  of  Israel,  put 
every  man   his  sword  by  his  side,  and  go  in  and  out 
from  gate  to  gate,  throughout  the  camp,  and  slay  every 
man  his  brother,   and  every  man  his  companion,  and 
every  man  his  neighbour:  and  there  fell  of  the  people 
tiiat  day  about  three  thousand  men."  Exod.  xxxii,  yd. 
That  is,  the  i)riests,   who  were  the   most   criminal   in 
this  affair  of  the  golden  calf,  were  to  commit  an  indis- 
criminate butchery,   without  respect  to  who  were  inno- 
cent or  guilty,   violating  every   bond  of  natural   and 
social  alTection. 

This  is  not  the  only  massacre  that  has  been  com- 
mitted by  those  who  have  rnnged  themselves  on  the 
L<^»r(rs  side,  or  pretended  his  orders;  three  hundred 
nullions  of  human  beings  have;  been  sacrificed  by 
Christian  j)riests  upon  similar  pretexts.  W'licMiever 
the  Lord  calls  to  bloodshed,  the  ))riests  are,  to  a  man, 
on  his  side,  "  I''or  as  troops  of  robbers  wait  for  a  man, 
«o  the  company  of  priests  murder  in  the  way  by  con- 
sent ;"    Hos.  vi.  9.      If   they  are  too  cowardly  to  draw 


8S  REMARKS  ON  THE  THEOCRACY. 

the  sword,  thcv  do  not  fail  to  sound  the  tocsin  of  war. 
But  doth  tlie  voice  of  luimanily  call  ?  Doth  the  voice 
of  indigence  call  ?  Doth  the  melting  voice  of  charity 
call  ?  Or  doth  the  voice  of  the  oppressed  call  ?  They 
are  as  the  adder,  deaf. 

From  that  confused  mass  of  disjointed  scraps,  which 
some  people  affect  to  call  the  JMosaic  code,  we  shall 
select  for  examination  a  ihw  of  those  laws  or  regula- 
tions, the  influence  of  which  seem  to  have  reached 
modern  times.  It  appears  by  Lev.  xxvii.  29,  that 
*'  none  devoted,  which  shall  be  devoted  of  men,  shall 
be  redeemed,  but  shall  surely  be  put  to  death,"  was  a 
law  that  authorised  the  abominable  custom  of  human 
sacrifices,  and  which  the  priests  of  Christianity  have 
been  so  loud  in  condemning  heathenism  for  counte- 
nancing. The  law  which  says,  "  Thou  shalt  not  suffer 
a  witch  to  live,'^  Exod.  xxii.  18,  "  and  a  wizard  shall 
surely  be  put  to  death,"  Lev.  xx.  27,  were  the  occa- 
sion of  unbounded  enormities.  Our  barbarous  an- 
cestors, ignorant  of  Nature  and  her  operations,  struck 
with  any  uncommon  appearance,  or  afflicted  with  any 
unusual  disease,  rather  than  be  at  the  trouble  of  in- 
vestigating the  cause,  chose  rather  to  refer  it  to  witch- 
craft, and  the  operations  of  wizards,  because  there 
were  laws  in  the  Bible  that  condemned  witches  and 
wizards.  jMillions  of  people  have  been  sacrificed  to 
this  abominable  frenzy,  while  it  reigned  in  Europe; 
numberless  helpless  and  infirm  wretches  were  con- 
victed of  witchcraft,  upon  the  testimony  of  their  own 
infirmities,  and  burnt  alive  for  committing  impossi- 
bilities according  to  the  divine  law  of  Exodus.  But 
now  that  the  law  is  repealed,  there  are  no  witches  to 
be  found  ;  and  when  women  can  bewitch  with  impu- 
nity they  will  not  bewitch  at  all.  That  law,  by  which 
a  woman,  suspected  of  incontinence,  was  oblio^ed  to 
drink  a  certaiii  quantity  of  consecrated  water.  Num.  v. 
1 1,  has  now  fallen  intodisuse;  unhappily,  our  modern 
priests  have  lost  the  secret  of  manufacturing  it.  But 
while  barbarity  and  ignorance  reigned  in  Europe,  our 


REMARKS  ON  THE  THEOCRACY.  Sa 

RVicestors,  who  mistook  dreams  for  realities,  and  these 
wild  inconsistencies  tor  the  laws  of  Giod,  Ijuilt  upon 
this  chapter  that  system  of  Gothic  jurisprudence 
which  was  then  called  the  trial  by  God's  judgment  ;^ 
they  thouo^ht  that  because  the  Jews  pretended  to  dis-- 
cover  adultery  by  means  of  consecrated  water,  they 
could  discover  other  crimes  bv similar  means.  Hence 
the  institution  of  the  judicial  combat,  trial  by  cold  or 
hot  water,   or  red-hot   iron,*   which  for   a   long  period 


'  In  doubtful  cases  two  men  were  chosen,  and  led  in  great  cere-? 
mony  to  a  rhuirh.  Here  they  stood  upright,  with  their  arms  ex-r 
tended  in  the  figure  of  a  cross,  and  in  the  mean  time  divine  service 
was  celebrated.  That  party,  whose  champion  kept  his  posture  thq 
longest,  was  declared  to  have  gained  the  cause. 

"  A  way  of  clearing-  one's  innocence  in  those  ancient  times,  was  to 
handle  a  piece  of  iron,  heated  more  or  less,  according  to  the  violence 
of  the  suspicion.  It  was  consecrated,  and  carefully  kept  in  some 
churches  ;  for  all  had  not  this  privilege,  which  was  no  less  profitable 
tlian  honourable.  'J  his  piece  of  iron  was  either  a  gauntlet,  in  which 
the  party  accused  was  to  thrust  his  hiind,  or  a  bar,  which  he  was  to 
take  up  two  or  three  tiuies.  His  hand  was  then  wrapped  up  in  a  bag-, 
on  which  tlie  judge  aiul  the  adversary  put  their  seals,  not  taking- 
them  off  till  ihrte  days  after.  If  there  were  no  marks  of  a  burn,  he 
was  acquitted  ;  but  any  remaining-  inspression  of  the  fire  was  a  proof 
of  guilt.  This  was  tl;e  tsial  of  tlse  nobles,  priests,  and  g^eiitry. 
That  of  the  commonalty  was  by  plunging  the  liand  into  boiling 
water;  or  bv  throwing  the  party  into  a  large  vessel  of  w;iter,  witli 
his  iiands  and  feet  tied.  '1  hese  ceremonies  were  preceded  by  a  form 
of  prayei-s.  If  he  floated,  he  was  concluded  guilty  ;  if  he  sunk,  he 
was  declared  innocent.  It  was  the  persuasion,  at  that  time,  that  God 
would  work  a  miracle  sooner  than  innocence  slu-uld  siifler;  a  notion 
equally  superstitious  and  absurd,  but  withal  so  strong-,  that  it  ever 
proved  one  of  the  great  obstacles  towards  the  abolisliment  of  custom.s 
so  contrary  to  reason.  Accordinjily.  it  was  not  till  the  thirteenth 
century  that  tin  y  were  suppressed  ;  and  tht-n  by  a  solium  decree  of 
the  Council  of  Lateran,  under  the  pontirtjate  of  Inn(»cent  I! I. 

It  may,  perhaps,  be  asked,  What  is  to  be  thought  of  these  trials, 
and  ti.e  miracles  wiih  whidi  tli<y  are  said  to  liav-:  betu  attended.* 
\\  as  all  w-|iicii  is  related  on  this  head  nally  supernatural,  or  the 
doings  of  artifire  and  ignorance?  Thtse  miraculous  farts  are  so 
generally  agreed  on  1)V  a;l  historians,  that  to  d(  jiy  them,  seems,  in  a 
great  measure,  overthrowing  all  the  foundations  of  iiistory  :  but  can 
credit  l)e  given  to  them,  witlionf  overthrowing  all  the  jjrincip'es  of 
reason  }     1  shall  answer  this  no  less  important  tlian  curious  question, 


m  REMARKS  ON  THE  THEOCRACY. 

continued  tx)  disgrace  the  code  of  every  European 
nation,  and  to  bo  a  monument  to  future  ages  of  the 
folly  and  mischief  of  attending  to  the  reveries  of 
superstition,  and  neglecting  the  dictates  of  reason  and 
common  sense. 

The  slave  trade  is  a  commerce  universally  odious  ; 
every  human  heart  but  those  immediately  concerned  in 
the  traffic  revolts  at  the  very  idea  of  it ;  enlightened 
Europe  hath  sufficiently  execrated  it  already  for  us  to 
say  any  thing  of  it  here.  We  only  mean  to  observe, 
that  when  the  feelings  and  humanity  of  the  nation 
with  one  voice  demanded  its  unqualified  abolition,  the 
few  sordid  avaricious  supporters  of  the  system  had 
little  to  oppose  to  the  justice  and  equity  of  the  claim 
but  the  law  of  Leviticus,  chap.  xxv.  44,  46,  "  Both 
thy  bondmen  and  bondmaids,  which  thou  shalt  have 
of  the  heathen  that  are  round  about  you,  of  them  shall 
ye  buy  bondmen  and  bondmaids.  Moreover,  of  the 
children  of  the  strangers  that  do  sojourn  among  you, 
of  them  shall  ye  buy,  and  of  their  families  that  are 
with  you  ;  which  they  begat  in  your  land,  and  they 
shall  be  your  possession.  And  ye  shall  take  them  for 
an  inheritance  to  your  children  after  you,  to  inherit 
them  for  a  possession  ;  they  shall  be  your  bondmen 
forever."     Thus  may  justice,   humanity,  and  charity, 


from  the  Memoirs  of  the  Academy  des  Belles  Lettres.  It  is  first 
observed,  that  trials  have  never  been  solemnly  approved  by  the 
church;  that  among  the  great  number  of  those  who  relate  these  sup- 
posed miracles,  some  deserve  very  little  regard,  others  do  not  relate 
them  as  certain  facts,  but  as  the  history  of  vulgar  belief;  lastly, 
that  in  those  verj'  ages  when  this  superstition  had  received  the  sanc- 
tion of  the  laws,  it  met  with  opposers,  who  openly  refused  to  submit 
to  it;  and  the  second  Council  of  Aix-Ia-Chapelie  calls  them  artifices 
tending  to  confound  truth  and  falsity.  "  George  l.ogothetes  speaks 
of  a  person,  who,  in  the  thirteenth  century,  refused  to  stand  a  fiery 
trial,  saying,  that  he  was  no  mountebank.  The  archbishop  beginning 
to  urge  him  to  a  compliance,  he  made  answer,  that  he  would  take  the 
red-hot  iron  into  his  hands,  if  his  Grace  would  give  it  him  in  his.  The 
prelate,  who  was  too  knowing  to  comply  with  the  proposal,  allowed 
that  it  was  not  proper  to  tempt  God." — Abbot  Velly. 


REMARKS  ON  THE  THEOCRACY.  01 

plead  in  vain  for  the  abolition  of  this  system  of  ini- 
quity;  the  interested  will  always  quote  the  law  of 
Leviticus  in  their  favour,  and  with  those  who  prefer 
the  pretended  revelations  of  a  horde  of  savages  to  the 
laws  of  reason  and  justice,  it  will  ever  be  a  powerful 
argument. 

Not  only  doth  the  Lord  authorise  the  slave  trade, 
but  himself  became  a  "  dealer  in  human  flesh,"  and 
treated  his  own  chosen  people  in  the  same  way  as  the 
Negro  princes  on  the  coast  of  Africa  do  theirs.  For, 
"  he  sold  them  into  the  hand  of  Cushan-rishathaim, 
king  of  Mesopotamia:  and  the  children  of  Israel 
served  Cushan-rishathaim  eight  years,"  Judges  iii.  8. 
Also  "  the  Lord  sold  them  into  the  hand  of  Jabin, 
king  of  Canaan,  who  reigned  in  Hazor :  he  mightily 
oppressed  the  children  of  Israel,"  chap.  iv.  2,  3.  He 
likewise  "  sold  them  into  the  hands  of  the  Philistines, 
and  into  the  hands  of  the  children  of  Ammon.  They 
vexed  and  oppressed  the  children  of  Israel  eighteen 
years,"  chap.  x.  7,  H.  If  he  sold  them,  he  also  "  de- 
livered them  into  the  hand  of  Midian,  seven  years," 
chap.  vi.  1,  ''  and  into  the  hand  of  the  Philistines 
forty  years,"  chap.  xiii.  1.  These  sellings  and  deliver- 
ings  doth  not  say  a  great  deal  in  favour  of  the  supreme 
magistrateof  a  theocratical  government.  The  Psalmist, 
however,  insinuates,  that  the  Lord  made  but  an  indif- 
ferent merchant ;  he  says,  "  Thou  sellest  thy  people 
for  nought,  and  dost  not  increase  thy  wealth  by  their 
price,"  Psalm  xliv.  12.  Our  slave-dealers  can  tell  a 
different  story. 

\i'  the  civil  policy  of  the  Jews  was  bad,  their  eccle- 
siastical was  much  worse.  'J'he  Lord,  it  seems, 
tliouf^ht  j)roper  to  give  unto  vVaron  and  the  priesthood, 
*'  All  the  best  of  the  oil,  and  all  the  best  of  the  wine, 
and  of  the  wheat  ;  the  first  fruits  of  them  which  they 
shall  offer  unto  the  Lord,  them  have  I  given  thee. 
Anfl  whatsoever  is  first  ripe  in  the  land,  which  they 
shall  bring  unto  the,  j^ord,  shall  he  thine."  Nirmb. 
xviii.   12,   13.     Tliey   were  also  to  have,    "  the  first 


92  REMARKS  ON  THE  TIIEOCKACV. 

fruit  of  thy  corn,  of  thy  wine,  and  of  thy  oil ;  and 
the  first  of  the  fleece  of  thy  sheep  shall  thoti  give  him," 
Ueut.  xviii.  '21.  The  Levites,  although  only  the 
twellth  part  of  the  nation,  were  to  have  the  tenth  part 
of  the  property.  Numb,  xviii.  51.  These  munificent 
grants  encouraged  the  priesthood  to  lay  claim  to  every 
thing  that  was  good  or  valuable  in  the  country  ;  to  such 
a  height  had  priestly  despotism  arrived  in  the  days  of 
Eli,  "  that  when  any  man  offered  a  sacrifice,  the  priests 
servant  came,  while  the  flesh  was  in  seething,  with  a 
flesh  hook  of  three  teeth  in  his  hand,  and  he  struck  it 
into  the  pan,  or  kettle,  or  cauldron,  or  pot  ;  all  that 
the  flesh  hook  brought  up,  the  priest  took  for  himself: 
so  they  did  in  Shiloh,  unto  all  the  Israelites  that  came 
thither.  Also  before  they  burnt  the  fat,  the  priest's 
servant  came,  and  said  to  die  man  that  sacrificed,  give 
flesh  to  roast  for  the  priest,  for  he  will  not  have  sodden 
flesh  of  thee,  but  raw.  And  if  any  man  said  unto 
him,  let  them  not  fail  to  burn  the  fat  presently,  and 
then  take  as  much  as  thy  soul  desireth  ;  then  he  would 
answer  him  ;  nay,  but  thou  shalt  give  it  me  now  ;  and 
]f  not,  I  will  take  it  by  force."  1  his  was  true  priestly 
conduct ;  their  scandalous  debauchery  was  of  a  piece 
with  it :  for  the  sons  of  Eli  "  lay  with  the  women 
that  assembled  at  the  door  of  the  tabernacle  of  the 
congregation,"  1  Sam.  i.  1:3,  22.  These  pious  ex- 
cesses have  always  stuck  to  the  holy  fraternity,  and  are 
equally  found  in  the  Levite  of  Judea,  as  the  Druid  of 
Gaul. 

It  is  to  be  observed  that  all  revelations  from  heaven 
have  ever  come  to  mankind  through  the  medium  of  the 
priesthood  ;  they  have  therefore  taken  good  care  that 
the  gods  should  always  order  them  ease  and  plenty  ; 
*'  they  are  the  lilies  of  the  valley,  they  toil  not,  nei- 
ther do  they  spin."  If  the  Lord  were  to  order  the 
people  to  give  his  priests  nothing  but  poor  fare  and 
hard  labour,  they  would  all  instantly  desert  the  ser- 
vice. Nay,  I  even  question  if  "  angels'  food"  would 
please  the  priests  of  our  day,  although  they  are  un- 


REMARKS  ON  THE  THEOCRACY.  93 

doubtedly  very  heavenly-minded,  and  seek  not  to  lay 
up  their  treasure  in  earthen  vessels,  "  where  moth  and 
rust  dodi  corrupt,  and  where  thieves  break  through  and 
steal  ;"  yet  if  the  carnal  comforts  of  this  life  can  be 
obtained  in  a  religious  way,  they  will  not  tail  to  strain 
every  nerve  to  obtain  them.  It  is  likely  that  the  Lord, 
seeing  such  mischievous  effects  flowing  from  such  ex- 
travagant donations,  grew  ashamed  of  them  ;  and  that 
♦'  these  were  the  statutes  he  gave  his  people,  that  were 
not  good,  and  the  judgments  whereby  they  should  not 
live,"  Ezek.  xx.  2j.  Such,  at  least,  is  the  opinion  of 
St.  Peter,  who  says,  "  they  were  a  yoke,  which  nei- 
ther their  fathers  nor  them  w^ere  able  to  bear,"  Acts 
XV.  10.  The  apostle  Paul  is  of  the  same  mind.  See 
Galat.  v.  1. 

If  we  reflect  ever  so  little  on  the  nature  of  Judaism, 
we  must  soon  be  convinced  that  it  could  only  be  sup- 
ported by  the  most  intolerable  oppression  ;  a  twelfth 
part  of  the  nation  priests,  and  doing  nothing:  one 
third  of  their  time  employed  in  religious  ceremonies, 
together  with  the  expence  of  sacrilices  and  offerings, 
must  always  have  proved  a  millstone  about  the  neck  of 
industry,  and  concentrate  the  whole  wealth  of  the 
country  into  the  hands  of  the  priests. 

This  divine  government  of  a  theocracy  does  not  ap- 
pear to  have  been  "  the  best  of  all  possible  govern- 
ments," or  "  the  wonder  and  envy  of  surrounding 
nations."  If  we  consult  the  book  of  Judges,  we  find 
the  people  subject  to  every  calamity  incident  to  a  bad 
system.  Surrourided  by  rapacious  neighbours,  they 
Were  liable  to  continual  invasions  from  without  ;  want 
of  system  and  order  made  tliem  a  prey  to  innumerable 
broils  and  commotions  at  hom(\  Sometimes  "  the 
Lord  raised  the  ni  up  .liidgrs,  then  the  Lord  was  with 
the  judge,  and  delivered  them  out  of  the  hands  of 
their  enemies  all  the  d;iys  of  the  judge."  These  de- 
liverings  were  but  temporary  r(  lief,  mere  patch-work 
expedients,  ill  calculated  to  ])roduce  any  lasting  bene- 
fit ;  for  the  people   became   anarchists,    "  every   man 


94  REMARKS  ON  THE  THEOCKACY. 

doing  that  which  was  right  in  his  own  eyes."  Jud. 
xvi.  6  ;  xxi.  2,5.  So  that  in  fact  this  divine  govern- 
ment was  none  at  all.  By  degrees  the  priesthood  got 
all  the  power  into  their  own  hands,  and  their  abuse 
of  it  was  the  cause  of  great  discontents.  The  venality 
and  extortion  of  Samuel's  sons,  "  who  turned  aside 
after  lucre,  and  took  bribes,  and  perverted  judgment, 
provoked  a  revolution,  when  the  people  rejected  the 
Lord,  that  he  should  not  reign  over  them,  and  they 
chose  them  a  king  after  the  manner  of  the  nations,'* 
1  Sam.  vii.  8.  Thus  ended  the  theocracy,  which  the 
priests  of  modern  times  are  not  ashamed  of  holding 
up  as  a  system  of  divine  perfection  ;  but,  upon  ex- 
amination, we  have  found  to  be  a  series  of  intolerable 
abuses  and  wild  anarchy. 

Happy  the  people  who  have  it  in  their  power  to  erect 
a  system  of  government  upon  the  immutable  basis  of 
equal  rights  ;  where  men's  interest  and  their  duty  are 
happily  united  ;  where  equal  laws,  cherishing  genius 
and  industry,  contribute  to  spread  plenty,  peace,  and 
happiness  over  the  whole  country  ! 


CONCLUSION. 


We  have  now  taken  a  general  survey  of  the  cha- 
racter of  tlie  Deity,  from  the  sacred  books  of  the 
Jews  ;  books  which  his  votaries  pretend  were  inspired 
and  dictated  bv  the  God  himself.  But  have  we  found 
a  God  of  hoHness,  truth,  justice,  goodness  ?  Far, 
very  far  from  it.  These  hooks  represent  their  God,  as 
a  being  of  ferocious  cruelty,  tyrannical,  unjust,  false, 
deceitful,  passionate,  angry,  revengeful,  and  capricious, 
continually  repenting  and  changing  his  mind.  True, 
indeed,  they  also  say  that  he  is  good,  merciful,  and 
just,  slow  to  anger,  and  of  great  kindness,  one  whose 
tender  mercies  are  above  all  his  other  works  ;  in  short 
they  blow  hot  and  cold  alternately,  and  give  him  such 
discordant  qualities,  that  no  such  being  ever  did  or 
can  exist,  but  in  the  distempered  imagination  of 
gloomy  superstition,  and  blind  credulity. 

The  priesthood  have  also  fathered  upon  him  those 
incoherent  rhapsodies,  which  they  declare  to  the  igno- 
rant to  be  the  fountain  of  divine  wisdom,  but  which 
we  look  upon  to  be  the  storehouse  of  priestly  fraud  ; 
a  com})ilation  so  confused,  and  contradictory,  as  to 
hid  defiance  to  all  the  rules  of  criticism.  A  hook 
whicli  no  human  intellect  has  ever  been  able  to  explain 
or  illustrate  ;  although  millions  of  men  have  been  con- 
stantly employed  for  many  ages  in  clearing  it  up,  it 
still  contiiMH  s  as  dark  as  ever,  and  the  same  infallible 
rule  of  faith  and  manners  it  always  was.  We  how- 
ever odir  one  ()})servation  M'hieh  may  make  several 
passages  easily  understood,  that  accordino^  to  the  pre- 
sent reading  are  wholly  uniiit(  llii;iblc.  In  almost  every 
case  where  they  now  read  the  words  Lord  and  (jod, 
substitute  the  word  Priest,  which  will  make  that  sense 


9G  CONCLUSION. 

-vvliicli  now  appears  nonsense,  and  will  tlirovv  suclj 
lio-ht  on  tlic  subject  that  none  can  be  ignorant  of"  the 
true  meaning. 

Is  it  not  blasphemy  and  impiety  to  insult  a  God 
■whom  we  pretend  to  beheve  in,  to  call  him  good,  and 
make  him  a  tyrant  ?  Is  it  not  the  height  of  impiety  to 
deceive  a  man  in  the  name  of  a  God  of  truth,  and 
make  him  the  author  of  lies  .''  Can  we  say  that  a  God 
who  is  supremely  iiappy  and  omnipotent,  is  offended 
by  his  feeble  creatures  ?  And  is  it  not  both  impious 
and  irrational  at  the  same  time,  to  make  a  mere  chimera 
of  the  God  we  adore?  The  judicious  reflection  of 
Plutarch,  in  his  essay  on  superstition,  is  extremely 
applicable  to  the  case  before  us.  He  says,  "  that  he 
had  rather  that  men  should  say  there  never  was  such  a 
man  as  ]-*lutarch,  than  that  they  should  say  Plutarch 
was  cruel,  a  liar,  and  unjust.  Better  to  have  no  God 
at  all,  than  to  represent  him  such  as  the  poets  feign  of 
Saturn,  first  to  beget  children,  and  then  eat  them.'* 
And  surely  much  better  would  it  be  for  the  human 
race  to  be  governed  by  the  laws  of  nature  and  reason, 
ihan  to  be  guided  by  the  imaginary  laws  of  a  fan- 
tastical chimera,  made  up  of  every  species  of  human 
wickedness  and  folly,  such  as  he  is  represented  to  us 
by  the  Jews.  He  prefers  atheism  to  superstition,  and 
surely  it  must  be  the  worst  kind  of  it  that  represents 
God  to  us  as  a  monster  of  wickedness.  He  says, 
*'  Atheism  brings  men  to  an  unconcernedness  and  in- 
difference of  temper:  for  the  design  of  those  who 
deny  a  God,  is  to  ease  themselves  of  his  fear.  But 
superstition  appears  by  its  name  to  be  a  distempered 
opinion  and  conceit,  productive  of  such  mean  and  ab- 
ject apprehensions,  as  debase  and  break  a  man's  spirit. 
For  thoug-h  he  tliinks  iustlv  that  there  are  divine 
powers,  yet  so  erroneous  is  his  judgment,  that  ho 
thinks  they  are  sour  and  vindictive  beings.  Atheism 
is  oijly  false  reasoning,  Vvhile  superstition  is  not  only 
false  n.'asoning,  but  superadds  a  passion,  fear,  which  is 
destitute  both  of  courage  and  reasoHy  and  renders  us 


CONCLUSION.  f»7 

stupid,  distracted,  and  inactive.     But  of  all  fears  none 
confounds  a  man  like  religious  fear." 

My  Lord  Bacon  is  of  the  same  opinion  ;  he  says, 
"  Atheism  leaves  a  man  to  sense,  to  philosophy,  to 
natural  piety,  to  laws,  to  reputation  ;  all  which  may 
be  guides  to  an  outward  moral  virtue,  though  religion 
were  not:  but  superstition  dismounts  all  these,  and 
erecteth  an  absolute  monarchy  in  the  minds  of  men. 
Therefore,  Atheism  did  never  perturb  states ;  for  it 
maketh  men  warv  of  themselves,  as  lookins^  no  fur- 
ther  ;  and  we  see  the  times  inclined  to  Atheism  (as  the 
times  of  Augustus  Caesar)  were  civil  times.  But 
superstition  hath  been  the  confusion  of  many  states ; 
and  bringeth  in  a  new  primum  mobile^  that  ravisheth 
all  the  sjjheres  of  government." 

Indeed,  nothing'  can  be  more  clear  than  that  a 
wicked  God  must  have  wicked  votaries;  the  commis- 
sion of  crimes  is  the  only  worship  fitted  for  such  a 
being;  to  imitate  him  must  be  to  plunge  into  every 
kind  of  enormity.  This  is  exactly  the  case  with  those 
who  are  called  his  saints.  Cunning,  fraud,  deceit, 
injustice,  inhumanity,  and  cruelty,  are  the  great  out- 
lini's  that  mark  the  characters  of  the  Lord's  saints.  No 
other  nation  ever  produced  men  equally  criminal  and 
wicked  ;  the  heroes  and  saints  of  Judaism  are  monsters 
in  nature,  and  such  will  ever  be  the  consequence  of 
neglecting  the  dictates  of  experience  and  reason,  to  fol- 
low the  mad  chimeras  of  deceitful  impostors. 

If  a  jiooplc  can  be  so  grossly  infatuated  as  to  believe 
themselves  under  the  inniiediate  government  of  an 
unknown  invisible  Being,  they  are  capab!.^  of  being 
imposed  on  and  made  to  believe  the  most  glaring  imj)Os- 
tures.  I'hev  will  stick  at  no  crimes,  however  enor- 
mous,  be  restrained  by  no  compunctions  of  humanity  ; 
the  bonds  of  justice  become  too  feeble  to  restrain  their 
vicious  propensities,  whenever  the  pretended  vice- 
gerents of  heaven  instigate  them  to  the  commission  of 
crimes.  i'hus  the  .lews,  who  thoui^ht  tl/nj;elvea 
exclusively  favoured  with  a  revelation  from  (jod,   have 

N 


!IH  CONCLUSION. 

been  a  nation  (Jet(>sto(lfbr  wickedness  and  Ijuibarisin  l>y 
all  |)cuj)lc'  of  the  eaitli.  Let  ns  then  spnrn  tliis  pre- 
tended a^itt  of  heaven,  which  has  proved  so  inimical  to 
linnian  liappiness  ;  let  us  return  back  to  the  celestial 
regions,  and  betake  ourselves  to  the  morality  of  the 
earth.  To  think  of  building  a  system  of  morality  on 
the  basis  of  revelation,  is  attempt! n2^  to  found  a  castle 
in  a  quagmire,  the  foundations  of  which  will  be  for 
ever  slipping  from  under  it.  it  is  on  the  nature  of 
man  and  his  various  relations  in  society  only,  that  it 
cau  stand,  but  which  is  sufficiently  able  to  support  it. 
Let  us  then  discard  the  reveries  of  imposture,  and 
listen  to  the  dictates  of  nature  ;  let  us  turn  a  deaf  ear 
to  visions,  dreams,  and  revelations  ;  but  be  ever  atten- 
tive to  the  voice  of  truth,  sober  reason,  and  experience. 
Let  us  see  if  the  superstition  of  the  earth  hath  any 
thing  better  to  present  to  our  view  than  the  following 
little  abstract,  from  a  work  of  distinguished  merit, 
which  we  shall  submit  to  the  judgment  of  our  readers, 
and  so  bid  them  farewell. 

Be  just,  because  equity  is  the  sup])ort  of  the  human 
species.  Be  good,  because  goodness  connects  all 
hearts.  Be  indulgent,  because  feeble  thyself,  thou 
livest  with  beings  as  feeble  as  thou  art.  Be  gentle, 
because  gentleness  attracts  affection.  Be  grateful, 
because  gratitude  feeds  and  nourishes  benevolence. 
Be  modest,  because  haughtiness  is  disgustiug  to  beings 
smitten  with  themselves.  Forgive  injuries,  because 
revenge  perpetuates  hatred.  Do  good  to  him  that 
injureth  thee,  in  order  to  shew  thyself  more  noble  than 
he  is,  and  to  make  a  friend  of  him.  He  reserved,  tem- 
perate, and  chaste,  because  voluptuousness,  intem- 
l^erance,  and  excess,  will  destroy  thy  being,  and  render 
thee  contemptible. 

Be  a  citizen,  because  thy  country  is  necessary  to 
thy  security,  to  thy  pleasures,  and  to  thine  happiness. 
Be  faithful,  and  submit  to  legitimate  authority,  be- 
cause it  is  requisite  to  the  maintenance  of  that  society 
which  is  necessary  to  thyself.    Be  obedient  to  the  laws, 


CONCLUSION.  99 

because  they  are  the  expression  of  the  public  will,  to 
which  thy  particular  will  ought  to  be  subordinate.     De- 
fend thy  country,  because  it  is  that  which  renders  thee 
happy,  and  contains  thy  property,  as  well  as  all  those 
beings  who  are  dearest  to  thine  heart.     Do  not  permit 
this  common  parent  of  thyself,  and  thy  fellow  citizens, 
to  fall   under  the   shackles  of  tyranny,  because  from 
thence  it  will  be   no   more  than  a  prison  to  thee.     If 
thine  unjust  country  refuse  thee   happiness;  if,  sub- 
mitted to  an   unjust  power,  it  suffers  thee  to  be  op- 
pressed,  withdraw  thyself  from  it  in  silence,  and  never 
disturb   it.     In    short,  be  a  man  :  be  a  sensible  and 
rational  being  ;  be  a  faithful  husband  ;  a  tender  father  ; 
an  equitable  master  ;  a  zealous  citizen  :  labour  to  serve 
thy  country  by  thy  powers,  thy  talents,  thine  industry, 
and  thy  virtues  ;  participate  with  thine  associates  those 
gifts   which   nature  hath   bestowed   on   thee  ;    diffuse 
happiness,  contentment,  and  joy,  over  all   those  who 
approach   thee  ;  that  the  sphere  of  thine  actions,  en- 
livened by  thy  kindness,  may  react  upon  thyself.     Be 
assured,  that  the  man  who  makes  others  happy,  cannot 
be  unhappy  himself. 

If  exjx;rience  direct  our  steps,  truth  illuminate  our 
way,  and  reason  support  us  with  its  aid,  we  shall 
infallibly  arrive  at  that  happiness  our  circumstances 
will  permit,  and  our  natures  are  capable  of  enjoying, 
without  having  recourse  to  the  mandates  of  invisible 
phantoms,  or  their  inferior  agents. 


THE    END.