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annotations on Rom. ix. cannot, I think, have the shadow of a doubt left on his mind, respecting either the drift of St. Paul's reasoning or the truth of it.

Page 12. "We know it is our duty to believe that Aaron's miracle was performed by the power of God; but we are at a loss to discover, by what power the magicians performed theirs."

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Page 15. "Some weak believers are in doubt, whether so mean, so ungenerous, and so dishonest an act, as borrowing the jewels of the Egyptians, without any intention of returning them, did not rather originate in that disposition, which characterizes the Jews to this day, than in the command of the just God, who certainly could need no such tricks to accomplish his in

Much reason have we to wish, that some one among the unbelievers would take the pains to acquire a moderate stock of Hebrew, that so he "might have to give," upon such occasions as these, "to him that needeth." For that the Israelites, in the proper sense of the English word, borrowed these jewels, or gave the Egyptians reason to expect a return of them, does by no means appear from the original, to which a man, when he is disposed to play the critic upon an author, should always have recourse, if he be solicitous to deserve the char

It is a pleasure to me to find these gentlemen solicitous about the performance of their duty; and therefore, let me address to them a word of consolation and encouragement. Be not swallowed up by overmuchtentions." uneasiness, as touching this matter. Rest satisfied that whatever may be determined concerning the wonders wrought by by the magicians, whether they are supposed to have been wrought in reality, or appearance only; by legerdemain, or the power of evil spirits, through the permission of God, willing to make his power known in this grand contest-either way, the argument drawn from miracles, in the support of revelation, will remain in its full strength. The superiority of the God of Israel was manifested, and the contest yielded by the adversaries, who could not protect them-acter of an honest man and a scholar. The selves or their friends from the maladies and plagues inflicted by omnipotence. Whatever the magicians did, or however they did it, it appeared evidently, they might as well have done nothing. Mankind can never be ensnared by pretences of this sort, when they see such pretences controlled and overruled by a superior power. You are men of too much sense, I am sure, to be found on the side of Jannes and Jambres, or to take a retainer from Simon Magus.

general signification of the word* is to ask, to require, to demand. In the three textst relative to this transaction, the Seventy, and in the two former, the Vulgate, § render it by a term of similar import. It is said, "the Israelites spoiled the Egyptians;" they took these jewels, vessels, &c. and the Egyptians gave them, as the spoil of a conquered enemy, glad to escape with life, and to dismiss a much injured people; they took these spoils, as wages due, and withholden, for immense labor undergone; as a Page 13. "Where did the magicians find recompense for long and cruel oppression; water to practice their art upon, since some of them, probably, as insignia of the Aaron had already turned it all into blood?" vanquished Egyptian deities, to be afterNot all, gentlemen, by your leave. The wards employed in the service of the true Egyptians not being able to drink of the God, whom Egypt, as well as Israel, ought water of the river, "digged round about it to have acknowledged and adored; who, as (as you are told*) for water to drink." the great Lord and Proprietor of all things And, depend upon it, they found some, or it in heaven and earth, taketh from one, and had been very bad with them indeed. But giveth to another, according to his good the truth is, that nothing is more common pleasure, founded evermore in wisdom, among writers, both sacred and profane, truth, and righteousness; who at the bethan the use of the word all, not in an absolute, but a relative, or comparative sense, as implying many, some of all sorts, &c. By adverting to this simple and obvious consideration, you might have spared yourselves the trouble of laboring in vain, through three or four pages, to be witty on the subject of Pharaoh's cattle being killed more

*Exod. vii. 24.

"God

ginning foretold that the Egyptians should
be spoiled, and when the time came, di-
rected his people so to spoil them.
gave them favor:" the act was his, and the
Israelites were instruments only in his
hands. If men are pleased to concern
themselves at all with the history, they

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must take the whole as it stands, neither blarning those on whom no blame can properly fall, nor accusing their Maker of iniquity, who can be guilty of none, but at a future day, to the confusion of all his blasphemers, will be fully "justified in his saying, and clear when he is judged."

One cannot but bless oneself to see how ready these writers are, at every turn, to give sentence against the people of God, in favor of their enemies; as if they emulated the fame of a set of worthies in the fifth century, called Cainites; who, having reprobated the Saviour of the world, his prophets, and apostles, are said to have adopted into the catalogue of their saints, and paid especial honors to the memories of Cain, Korah, Dathan, Esau, the Sodomites, and| Judas Iscariot.

As to their intimation, at page 17, that, because Egypt was a country intersected by canals, there never were any horses or chariots in it, they ought for this to take their part in the next general flogging, at Westminster school. During the operation, perhaps, the captain of the school will be enjoined by the master to read aloud the following short passage from Rollin's Ancient History: "Foot, Horse, and Chariot races were performed in Egypt with wonderful agility, and the world could not show better horsemen than the Egyptians."*

In the next letter we shall proceed to the consideration of a topic entirely new-BALAAM'S ASS.

Vol. i. p. 48.

LETTER XV.

THE first difficulty here is, "Why God | ceptation. Something was wrong in the should be angry with Balaam for going, when he had given him leave to go?"

To be sure, all circumstances continuing the same, it would be strange-it would be passing strange. But if circumstances varied, the divine conduct might vary too. "Go," says God, "but "-observe-" the word which I say unto thee, that shalt thou do."* Balaam seems to have set out with a resolution to obey; for like a man, and like an honest man, he had boldly and nobly said, "If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord my God, to do less or more." However, it is possible that, upon the road, either by the persuasive arguments of the princes of Moab who accompanied him, or by the wicked suggestions of his own deceitful heart, an alteration had taken place in his mind, and interest had gained the ascendant over duty. I say, this is possible: considering his character, it is probable: but a passage in the history itself seems to make it certain. "I went out to withstand thee, because thy before me." way is perverse But what way? Not merely his journey, for he had leave to take it conditionlly. Way must necessarily be understood in its moral ac† Ibid. xxii. 18.

Numb. xxii. 20 Ibid. xxii. 32.

course of his thoughts, his imaginations, in his design and intention, now changed from what they were at setting out. "The foolishness (or wickedness) of man PERVERTETH his WAY."* Therefore God was angry, not, as it is in our translation, "because he went ;" but "as he was going-while he was on the road." Upon Balaam's humbling himself, and offering to return, leave of proceeding is again granted, but with a significant repetition of the original proviso: "Only the word that I shall speak unto thee, that thou shalt speak."§-" Go on; but remember, to me your heart is open, your desires are known. If you betray your trust, the drawn sword of the angel waits to punish your duplicity as it ought to be punished." This appears to be a fair and reasonable solution of the first difficulty.

As to the second, it is observed, page 17, that "the ass exhibited a specimen of penetration and prudence, of which the asses of modern times seem to be divested."

The observation brings to my mind one made upon the subject some years ago, by that father of the faithless, Dr. Tindal. "What a number of ideas must Balaam's ass have (says he) to be able to reason with † Numb. xxii. 22. § Ibid. Ver. 35.

*Prov. xix. 3.

כי חולר $

her master, when she saw and knew an angel * Will these gentlemen do me the favor to accept Dr. Waterland's answer?"Now, as to the number of ideas which the ass must have; I believe she had as many as asses commonly have: and he may please to count them at his leisure, for his own amusement." If they have ever an anatomist among them, I dare say he could very easily demonstrate, from the configuration of its organs, the impossibility of the creature's speaking at all. And his demonstration would be just as much to the purpose, as Tindal's question. The plain truth is this: if it pleased God to take "this particular method of rebuking the prophet's madness," the severest philosophy cannot question his power to produce sounds articulate and significant, either with the organs of any animal, or without them. A voice proceeding from a dumb creature was made, upon this occasion, to teach a lesson similar to that deduced, upon another, from the example of the same creature: "The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib; but a man doth not know-a prophet doth not consider." If it be objected, that the occasion was not worthy; that it was not dignus vindice nodus; we shall certainly take the liberty to think that God Almighty was a much better judge of that matter than the infidels can possibly be, even were they ten times wiser than they are. The whole transaction, in which Balaam bore so conspicuous a part, is of very great moment, and the history which relates it, full of deep instruction, as well as abounding in the beautiful and sublime.||

A predecessor of these gentlemen, Mr. Chubb, I remember, called the Supreme Being to a very severe account for his conduct respecting the Canaanites; and they seem disposed to do the same, in a bitter, sarcastical, canting section, page 19, &c. the drift of which is to compare the Israelites in Canaan to the Spaniards in Mexico, and represent the former as the more de testable people of the two. The objection | will perhaps be obviated, and its futility evinced, by proposing the few following queries:

1st. Has not the Almighty a sovereign right over the lives and fortunes of his creatures?

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2dly. May not the iniquity of nations become such, as to justify him in destroying those nations?

3dly. Is he not free to choose the instruments by which he will effect such destruction?

4thly. Is there more injustice or cruelty in his effecting it by the sword, than by famine, pestilence, whirlwind, deluge, or earthquake?

5thly. When these latter means are employed, do not women, children, and cattle, perish with the men ?

6thly. Does not God take away thousands of children every day, and perhaps more than half the species, under ten years of age?

7thly. Does not the circumstance of a divine commission entirely alter the state of the case, and distinguish the Israelites from the Spaniards, as much as a warrant from the magistrate distinguishes the executioner from the murderer ?

8thly. May not men be assured of God's having given them such a commission?

9thly. Were not the Israelites thus assured; and is there not at this day incontestable evidence upon record, that they were so ?

This is a fair and regular distribution of the subject into its several parts. Whenever the infidels shall find themselves in a humor to discuss all or any of them, we must consider what they may offer farther upon this topic.

Page 18. They cite the following passage from Judges, i. 19. "The Lord was with Judah, and he drove out the inhabitants of the mountain: but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron." They subjoin: "It is difficult to conceive how the Lord of heaven and earth, who had so often changed the order, and suspended the established laws of nature, in favor of his people, could not succeed against the inhabitants of a valley, because they had chariots of iron !"

At the end of this sentence is placed only a single note of admiration. There ought to have been at least half a dozen; for never was anything more truly wonderful! The "difficulty of conceiving it" is very great indeed! so great, that one should have thought, for very pity's sake, our adversaries would have looked about them a little, to see whether they understood the text, and whether there were no possible been kind enough to do it for us, we must way of bringing us off. As they have not e'en try what we can do for ourselves.

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We apprehend, then, in the first place, that when it is said, He drove out the inhabitants of the mountain, but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley ;" the antecedent is Judah, not Jehovah; because Jehovah had often displayed much more eminent instances of his power; and he that effected the greater, could certainly have effected the less. In the second place, though it pleased God to give success to Judah in one instance, it does not necessarily follow, that therefore he should give it in all. So that there is no more absurdity in the passage, than there would be in the following speech, if such had been addressed to the sovereign by one of his commanders returned from America: "By the blessing of God upon your majesty's arms, we overcame General Greene in the field; but we could not attack General Washington, because he was too strongly intrenched in his camp." There is no reason, therefore, for supposing, that "the Jews considered the God of Israel their protector as a local divinity; who was in some instances more, and in others less powerful, than the gods of their enemies."*

Nor is it altogether "THUS that David in many places compares the Lord with other gods:" since he compares him with them, only to set him above them; as sufficiently appears by the passage quoted: "The Lord is a great God, and a great king above all gods." In the heathen world there were gods many, and lords many." An Israelite acknowledged only one God, the maker of heaven and earth, and of all the supposed deities that were therein. "All the gods of the heathens (so styled by them) are but idols; but it is the Lord that made

the heavens."

Such, as an Israelite, must have been the sentiments of Jephthah, as well as David;

and therefore the citation from his address

to the king of the Ammonites will avail nothing to the purpose for which it is adduced: "Wilt thou not 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." It cannot be seriously thought that Jephthah, a judge in Israel, intended to acknowledge the real divinity of the Ammonitish idol, Chemosh.

any possession acquired, as you imagine, by the assistance of him whom you call your god, and cannot reasonably expect us to yield that which we know the Lord our God has awarded to us." Jephthah, in a negotiation with the Ammonites, had no occasion to discuss the subject of their idolatry, or tell them what he thought of Chemosh: but states the matter according to their own ideas, supposidg them, for a moment, to be true, though he believed them to be false; as is done every day.

Voltaire has amused himself much with this text, and between one and another of his manifold publications, kept it up like a shuttle-cock. He struggles hard for it—but in vain. "The words of Scripture," says he, "are not, Thou thinkest thou hast a right to possess, &c., but expressly, Thou hast a right to possess, &c., for that is the true interpretation of the Hebrew words, otho thirasch."* Ay, my little man, so it is, according to the Vulgate "Tibi jure debentur." But any modern schoolboy would have informed thee better, and told thee, that the words, in very deed, denote neither more nor less than, "Thou wilt possess it." Are we to give up our Bible, and pin our faith upon the sleeve of such a man as this?

After Balaam's Ass, the Canaanites, and Chemosh, one naturally expects-and lo, she is at hand-.

THE WITCH OF ENDOR.

It was not unusual among us here in Enghad the misfortune to live at the corner of a land some years ago, for an old woman, if she tossed into a horse pond, to see whether she common, to be suspected of witchcraft, and would sink or swim. To put an end to such of a more serious and solemn kind, the legis ridiculous barbarities, as well as some others lature of Great Britain very wisely ordained, by an Act of 9 G. II. ch. 5, that no person should in future be vexed or prosecuted under that notion; and that whoever pretended to be adjudged to the pillory. These gentlemen anything of the kind, should, on conviction, have their fears upon this occasion, for the authority of the Bible. I cannot say, for my part, that I feel any such apprehensions.

now ceased to appear."

Jewish law, both prove by divine argument Page 23. "The witch of Endor and the ment is evidently of the kind which logi-professors, though, like miracles, they have No: the argu-(whatever that may be,) the existence of such cians style argumentum ad hominem, an argument formed upon the principles of the adversaries, and therefore conclusive to them. "You deem yourselves entitled to † Ibid. ‡ Judg. xi. 24.

*Page 19.

But the non-existence of miracles at present is no proof that they never existed; for

reatise on Toleration, chap. xii.

1

they most certainly once did exist, if evidence therefore, either that the whole affair of be evidence. The argument therefore is Samuel's appearance was a contrivance: or full in their own teeth; and there might be that, by the interposition of God, there was witches, as well as possessed persons, former- a real appearance, which the enchantress did ly, though there may be none now. The not expect, nor could have effected. The Bible may yet be true, and (blessed be God) surprise and alarm occasioned in her seem to the parliament not infidel. They "deplore point us this way, and there are two instances the infidelity of that parliament." Bold recorded in Scripture of a proceeding somewords these, indeed! I would not have said what similar. such things of any parliament, for the world— They are apprehensive of persecution-Let them take care another time.

It appears by the Jewish law, that there were then men and women, who, in the language of our translation, are styled "diviners, observers of times, enchanters, witches, charmers, consulters with familiar spirits, wizards, and necromancers.": These practices are said to be "the abominations of the heathen ;"+ and we know they were continued, lower down, among the Greeks and Romans, whose philosophers were sometimes puzzled how to determine concerning them. With the idolatry of their neighbors the Israelites frequently adopted these its appendages. That there was in them much of juggling and imposture, may be true; but that all was so, is more than many wise and learned men have thought proper, upon a due consideration of the matter, to assert; because, that there are no evil spirits, or that mankind never had any communication with them, are negatives, not easily proved.

Respecting the transaction at Endor, the case, in few words, stands thus. Convinced by proper evidence of the authority of the book in which it is related, we of course believe (having, as we judge, good reason to believe,) that the several incidents happened as they are there said to have happened. By what power or agency they were brought about, or how the business was conducted, is another question, which we must endeavor to solve, if we can do it; if not, it must remain as it is, being confessedly to us, at this distance, of an obscure and difficult nature.

That God should permit evil spirits, employed by a wretched woman, to summon, at pleasure, his departed servants from the other world, is not to be imagined. It remains,

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When king Balak had recourse to sorceries and divinations, hoping to procure some relief, or fair promises at least, from them, God himself interposed, and so overruled Balaam, and all his divinations, that Balak could obtain no favorable answer from them, but quite the reverse.*

In like manner, when king Ahaziah had sent to consult Baalzebub, the demon of Ekron, to know whether he should recover of the sickness he then lay under, hoping, no doubt, to obtain a favorable answer there, as probably he might have done; God himself took care to anticipate the answer by Elijah, the prophet, who assured the messengers, meeting them by the way, that their master Ahaziah should not recover, but should surely die.†

Thus, probably, was it in the case of Saul: when he hoped for a kind answer from Samuel, and, it is likely, would have had a very favorable one from some pretended Samuel, God was pleased to disappoint both the sorceress and him, by sending the true Samuel, with a true and faithful message, quite contrary to what the woman and Saul had expected: which so confounded and disordered him, that he instantly fell into a swoon, and could no longer bear up against the bitter agonies of his mind.

The sense of the Jewish church, about three hundred years before Christ, is given by the author of the book of Ecclesiasticus, when, speaking of Samuel, he says thus: "After his death he prophesied, and showed the king his end, and lifted up his voice from the earth in prophecy, to blot out the wickedness of the people." This author plainly enough supposed that it was Samuel himself who appeared in person, and prophesied to king Saul.

*Numb. xxiii. † 2 Kings, i. Ecclus. xlvi. 20.

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